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^OONSOCKE 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



TOWN OF BELLINGHAM 

MASSACHUSETTS 
1719 - 1919 



BY 

GEORGE F. PARTRroGE 



PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN 
1919 






Copyright 1919 
By Town of Bellingham 



NOV -8 iSid 



©C!.A5a57J7 



PREFACE 

The two hundredth anniversary of our town this year 
brings the occasion for writing its history, for both those 
who are interested now and those who may care for it in 
the future. My purpose has been to collect and preserve 
the essentials of the story, not to describe the life of this 
rather unusual border town as it deserves. In the strug- 
gles of Baptists and Quakers for religious liberty from its 
beginning, and in the anxious times of the Revolution and 
the settlement of the constitution, the town was a leader 
in its day. Genealogy and much else that is interesting 
has been left out, and documents have been quoted 
exactly but with omissions. The chief sources used have 
been the town records and the vital statistics, church 
records, the Massachusetts Archives and General Court 
Records, the Registries of Deeds and Wills at Boston 
and Dedham, and the Metcalf and other family papers. 
There are in print two sermons of Rev. Abial Fisher on 
our first century, and a chapter on Bellingham by R. G. 
Fairbanks in Kurd's "History of Norfolk County," 1884. 

This book has been made possible by the vote of 
$500 for its publication by the town, and by Mr. A. E. 
Bullard, who has met the expense of printing beyond that 
sum. The author's thanks are due also to the town's 
committee on publication, and to many others who have 
helped him in the pleasant task. That committee is 
Maurice J. Connolly, Percy C. Burr, and Orville C. 
Rhodes, now deceased. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I Governor Bellingham 1 

II King Philip's War 14 

III Secretary Rawson and his Farm 22 

IV Baptist and Quaker 29 

V Early Settlers 44 

VI The Town Church 73 

VII Town Affairs, 1719-1747 89 

VIII The Baptist Church, 1736-1819 100 

IX Town Affairs, 1747-1819 118 

X The Mills 141 

XI The Churches, 1819-1919 160 

XII Town Affairs, 1819-1919 172 

XIII Public Persons 187 

XIV The Town in 1919 201 

Index 219 

A map, eleven autographs, and twenty-six pictures. 



History of Bellingham 

Chapter I 
GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM 

The town of Bellingham has a name that lias not 
been much used, for either persons or places. In England 
Sir Edward Bellingham was a headstrong and quarrel- 
some Puritan soldier, who died in 1549. In Northum- 
berland, not far from the Scottish Border, is a quaint 
little town of that name, with a remarkable church, built 
about seven hundred years ago, when the noble family 
of Bellinghams lived there. It produces many sheep, and 
coal, iron and lime from its mines. 

In America, when the English navigator Vancouver 
first explored the coast of the State of Washington in 
1792 and found what is now called Bellingham Bay, he 
named it for Sir Henry Bellingham, the British naval 
officer who had dismissed him on this voyage. The flour- 
ishing city of the same name on its shores is a county seat, 
with a normal college, four railroads, and manufactures 
that give it the fourth place in its State. Its chief products 
are shingles and salmon, and it has great quarries. Its 
population is thirty-three thousand. Besides these two 
places, there appear to be only two small post offices of our 
name besides our own, one in Ontario and one in Minnesota. 

Our town was named for the third Governor of the 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay, the old Puritan lawyer, 
Richard Bellingham. 



2 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

His name will never be forgotten, because it is pre- 
served in a famous book, Hawthorne's " Scarlet Letter," 
but only a few of those who read it there ever know 
the life story that makes him memorable for his own 
sake. He was born in England of a good family in 
1591, and educated for a lawyer. Few men gave up that 
profession to become a Puritan as he did, and he was 
naturally a leader among them all his long life. He was 
the Recorder of the important English town of Boston, 
helped to draw up the charter of the new Massachusetts 
Bay Colony, was one of the twenty-six original members 
of the company, and subscribed fifty pounds for it. He 
arrived in Boston in 1634 with his wife Elizabeth and 
his son Samuel. 

He was given a sort of greeting in that quaint and 
childish book, "Johnson's Wonder Working Providence 
in New England," published in 1654: "At this time came 
over the much honored Mr. Richard Bellingham, whose 
estate and person did much for the civil government of 
this wandering people, hee being learned in the Lawes 
of England, and experimentally fitted for the worke, of 
whom I am bold to say as followeth: 

"Richardus now, arise must thou, Christ seed hath thee to 
plead, 
His people's cause, with equall lawes, in wilderness them lead; 
Though slow of speech, thy eounsell reach, shall each occasion 

well, 
Sure thy stern look, it cannot brook, those wickedly rebell." 

Probably these four lines are amply enough to show 
how bold the poet was. 

Newcomers in Boston then were not citizens until 
they joined the church and were accepted as freemen 
by vote. His name is on the first list of twenty-six free- 
men, and he and his wife joined the church in 1634. 



GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM d 

The very next year he received two high honors, 
when a miHtary commission for pubhc defence with 
extraordinary powers, including the penalty of death, 
was appointed, consisting of the magistrates and Mr. 
Bellingham; besides this he was Deputy Governor for 
the year. 

He was repeatedly placed on a committee to draw 
up a code of fundamental laws based on the Bible, but 
the task was always put off because the magistrates 
avoided it in order not to transgress their charter; a 
natural growth of the common law was safer for them. 
He had a larger share in the law-making for the colony 
than any other man, unless Winthrop. 

In 1636 a public subscription for a school in Boston 
was started, and Bellingham's name came third on the 
list with a gift of ten pounds. " Like Winthrop, Dudley 
and Bradstreet, he was a man of property above the rest." 

In 1640 he was Deputy Governor again, and men 
began to think of him for the higher office, which was 
then held by Joseph Dudley of Roxbury. This was 
Dudley's first term, and he was the first Governor who 
was not a voter in Boston, chosen probably not on account 
of any dissatisfaction with his predecessor, Winthrop, 
but because "the freemen feared a governor for life." 
No good reason appears why Dudley was not continued 
in office for another year, but the remarkable election 
of 1641 put Bellingham in his place. 

We have no account of the campaign, but Winthrop 's 
History says: "There had been much laboring to have 
Bellingham chosen." Every freeman of the colony could 
vote for Governor either in person or by proxy, and 
Bellingham was chosen by six votes, out of fourteen hun- 
dred. When this remit was announced, some men who 
had not voted when they entered the room, as the custom 



4 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

was, asked to be allowed to do it then, but they were 
too late. Besides the mortification of seeing this close 
result, the new Governor was at once insulted by the 
General Court, for they immediately repealed the Gov- 
ernor's annual grant of one hundred pounds, and he was 
left with no salary for this year till October, 1643, when 
the Court voted him fifty pounds. 

Not only was the pleasure of his triumph spoiled 
by these two public disappointments, but his grand 
house, on Tremont Street opposite to King's Chapel 
burying ground, had lost its mistress by death, and he 
was left alone with his son Samuel. The house is imagined 
in " The Scarlet Letter ": "It was a large wooden house, 
decorated with strange figures and diagrams, suitable 
to the quaint taste of the age, which had been drawn in 
the stucco when newly laid on, and had now grown hard 
and durable, for the admiration of after times. With 
many variations, Governor Bellingham had planned his 
new habitation after the residences of gentlemen of fair 
estate in his native land. Here then was a wide and 
reasonably lofty hall, extending through the whole depth 
of the house. At one extremity this spacious room was 
lighted by the windows of two towers, which formed a 
small recess on either side of the portal. At the other 
end, though partly muffled by a curtain, it was more 
powerfully illuminated by one of those embowed hall- 
windows which we read of in old books, and which was 
provided with a keep and cushioned seat. Here on the 
cushion lay a folio tome, probably of the Chronicles of 
England, or other such substantial literature. The fur- 
niture of the hall consisted of some ponderous chairs, 
and a table in the same taste, being heirlooms from the 
Governor's paternal home. On the table stood a large 
pewter tankard. 



GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM 5 

On the wall hung a row of portraits, representing 
the forefathers of the Bellingham lineage, and at about 
the centre of the oaken panels that lined the hall hung a 
suit of mail, not like the pictures an ancestral relic, 
but of the most modern date. This armor was not meant 
for idle show, but had been worn by the Governor on 
many a solemn muster and training field, and had glit- 
tered moreover at the head of a regiment in the Pequod 
war. For though bred a lawyer, the exigencies of this 
new country had transformed Governor Bellingham into 
a soldier as well as a statesman and ruler." 

The Governor's mansion was not long without a 
new mistress, and she was found in a remarkable way. 
In 1635 Penelope Pelham, sixteen yea^s old, had come to 
Boston, and had lived since then with her brother Her- 
bert in Cambridge, who was the treasurer of Harvard 
College in 1643. She became the Governor's wife only 
a month or two after his election. Winthrop says: "The 
young woman was ready to be contracted to a friend of 
his, who had lodged in his house and by his consent had 
proceeded so far with her, when on a sudden the Gov- 
ernor treated with her and obtained her for himself. 
He excused it by the strength of his affection, and that 
she was not absolutely promised to the other gentleman. 
Two errors more he committed on it. First that he 
would not have his marriage contract published where 
he dwelt, contrary to an order of court, and second that 
he married himself, contrary to the constant practise of 
the country." 

This remarkable marriage is described in a novel 
whose heroine is the Governor's bride. Carpenter's 
"Woman of Shawmut." Her brother Herbert reminds 
the Governor that ihe banns have already been pub- 
lished between her and another man, and asks, "Will 



6 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

the godly ministers or the magistrates unite thee and 
her?" Bellingham repHes: "Is not the Governor of 
Massachusetts Bay a magistrate who outranks them 
all? Have I not in me all authority which in another 
lieth?" "It is even so," says Herbert, bowing low. 

Then, seizing the hand of Penelope, he leads her to 
the centre of the room, and standing there with his arm 
about her, he demands, "Summon thy household, good 
Master Pelham, and they shall see Governor Belling- 
ham's power. Now, this very hour, shall Penelope Pel- 
ham be his bride." A vivid flush rises to the girl's cheeks, 
but she says nothing, and the household is assembled. 
"Penelope Pelham," says the Governor, "wilt thou, in 
the presence of these, take Richard Bellingham to be 
thy lawful husband.?" 

"Yea, I will," softly answers Penelope. 

"And I, Richard Bellingham, will take thee, Penel- 
ope, to wife. And now I, the Governor of His Majesty's 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay, do pronounce and declare 
that Richard Bellingham and Penelope Pelham are man 
and wife together. The King shall be my witness." 

The effect of this conduct of the chief magistrate 
can only be imagined, for there is no historical account 
of it. The astonishment and indignation of the Puritan 
colony must have been great. At the next session of the 
magistrates, while he was presiding, "The case of Rich- 
ard Bellingham for breach of order of the court," was 
presented, but Bellingham kept his seat. Few magis- 
trates were present, and the secretary said that the case 
must be postponed if he would not leave his seat to stand 
at the bar. The Governor replied that he should not 
leave his seat unless commanded, perhaps adding, "Who 
will command me.'*" There is no record of further action 
in the case. 



GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM 7 

Naturally the Governor's term of office was not 
very smooth, but no very great troubles are found in 
the records. With all his domineering and quarrelsome 
disposition he had a legally trained mind and a Puritan 
conscience. The magistrates were offended at his con- 
duct in taking the part of a poor miller against the rich 
ex-Governor Dudley, and at his improper interference as 
they considered it, in a fine which was duly imposed in 
court on a humble citizen. Winthrop says, "The General 
Court was full of uncomfortable agitations and conten- 
tions by reason of Bellingham's unfriendliness to some 
other magistrates. He set himself in an opposite frame 
to them in all proceedings, which did much retard all 
business, and was an occasion of grief to many godly 
minds and matter of reproach to the whole Court in the 
mouth of others, and brought himself low in the eyes 
of those with whom formerly he had been in honor." 
He showed "an evil spirit of emulation and jealousy, 
through his melancholic disposition, at seeing others of 
the magistrates bear more sway with the people than 
himself. Dudley, being a very wise and just man, and 
one that would not be trodden under foot of any man, 
took occasion (alleging his age, etc.) to tell the Court 
that he was resolved to leave his place. The Court was 
much affected and entreated him to leave off these 
thoughts. The Governor (Bellingham) also made a 
speech, as if he desired to leave his place of magistracy 
also; but he was fain to make his own answer, for no 
man desired him to keep or to consider better of it." 
Before his year of office was over, even the Deputies, with 
whom he had been more friendly than the magistrates, 
sent a committee to give him a solemn admonition, a 
thing which was never done to any Governor before. 
Though the freemen of Boston chose him selectman at 



8 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

this time, as the custom was to include the Governor 
in that body, he was not to hold his higher office again 
for thirteen years. 

The General Court had voted contrary to the charter 
in 1636 as follows: "The General Court shall elect from 
time to time a number of magistrates for term of their 
lives as a standing council, not to be removed but upon 
conviction of crime or other weighty cause, and to have 
such power as the Court shall endue them withal." 
Bellingham aspired to this office, but Winthrop, Dudley 
and Endicott were the only members ever chosen, and 
it was soon voted that all officers of the Colony should 
receive their powers annually, so that the plan came to 
nothing. 

It had happened in 1636 that the rich and rather 
unpopular Captain Keayne, the founder of the Ancient and 
Honorable Artillery Company, had a stray pig brought 
to him, which he advertised and kept nearly a year. 
Before he killed it, but after he had killed another pig 
of his own, a poor woman named Sherman came to identify 
the stray, declared that the one he had killed was hers, 
and claimed damages. The elders of the church and a 
jury both decided against her, and the jury gave Captain 
Keayne three pounds damages. Then the rich man 
sued the poor woman for slander, and got a verdict of 
forty pounds. She appealed to the General Court, 
which sat as one body though it consisted of both mag- 
istrates and deputies. After seven days of discussion, 
in 1642, two magistrates and fifteen deputies voted to 
reverse the award for slander and seven magistrates 
and eight deputies to uphold it; seven deputies did not 
vote. Thus the magistrates supported the rich man, 
and the deputies the poor woman, and the case was not 
considered settled. "Bellingham would have the mag- 



GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM 9 

istrates lay down their negative voice," that is, give up 
their veto power on the deputies. "Much contention 
there was." One of the magistrates wrote a small treatise 
to maintain the need of a second independent legislative 
body, and an attack on this pamphlet was written, it is 
supposed by Bellingham. Governor Winthrop made a 
si>eech of apology during this controversy, regretting his 
undue freedom in judging the acts of his brethren. The 
elders approved the sentence of the court, but the poor 
woman appealed again to the General Court for a new 
hearing, which was granted, and Captain Keayne was 
advised to return a part of the damages awarded him. 
The great constitutional question thus raised was thor- 
oughly discussed, and not settled in haste, as Bellingham 
and the deputies wished. In 1644 it was voted apparently 
without opposition that hereafter each body should sit 
separately, and that only votes agreed to by both houses 
should become laws. 

In 1653, when the original leaders of the colony had 
mostly died, Bellingham was chosen Deputy Governor, 
and the next year Governor. But one term of him was 
found enough, for he was immediately put back into the 
Deputy Governor's place, and kept there while Endicott 
was annually chosen Governor, for eleven years, till his 
death. After that event, Bellingham, the last survivor 
of the chief founders of the colony, was its Governor for 
the rest of his life. 

In 1656, two Quaker women came to Boston to 
spread their faith. As the Governor was absent, Belling- 
ham, the Deputy Governor, sent men to their ship to 
search their goods, and about one hundred of their books 
were burnt by the hangman; they were stripped in the 
search, and were kept imprisoned on their ship five weeks, 
till the captain took them away. When Endicott returned. 



10 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

he was not pleased at this mild treatment, and declared 
that he would have had them well whipped. It was 
noticed that Bellingham grew milder towards the 
Quakers in his old age, but so did the whole colony, 
and besides the King's commissioners forbade such 
persecutions. 

The fate of the Governor's own sister might be 
thought enough to quench such fanaticism. Her hus- 
band, Mr. Hibbens, had been a magistrate, an agent of 
the colony in England and an eminent merchant, but 
lost his property and died leaving his widow in poverty. 
She became very querulous and troublesome to her 
neighbors, and was hung as a witch on Boston Common 
in 1656, the second victim of the witchcraft delusion in 
the colony. 

It seems impossible to believe that the Massachu- 
setts men could be so foolish, unless we know the pre- 
vailing belief of the mother country at the same time. 
From 1660 to 1718 twenty-five books on this subject 
were published in England. Joseph Addison, the great 
writer, defended the doctrine in 1711. John Wesley said 
that if he gave up witchcraft he must give up the Bible. 
Sixty persons were executed as witches in one year in 
one county in England, and five as late as 1722. The 
English law against witches was repealed in 1736. 

In Massachusetts four persons were executed in 
Boston at different times, and finally at Salem sixteen 
by a special court appointed by a rash and ignorant 
provincial governor, Sir William Phips, representing 
not the people of Massachusetts but the King. Four 
years later the State's repentance was expressed by a 
public Fast Day, and in 1703 the Representatives solenmly 
voted: " Ordered that no Spectre Evidence may hereafter 
be accounted valid . . . within this Province, and that 



GOVERNOR BELLINGIIAM 11 

the Infamy and Reproach cast on the names and Pos- 
terity of the accused and condemned Persons may in 
some measure be Rolled away." Even eighteen years 
after the dreadful mistake their consciences were not 
at rest, for in 1710 a bill was passed to remove the legal 
disability of persons condemned for this crime, and to 
pay them and their representatives five hundred and 
seventy-eight pounds for damages. 

When the King of England wrote in 1666 that "it 
was very evident that those who govern the colony of 
Massachusetts did believe that his Majesty had no 
jurisdiction over them, and that no one could appeal 
to him from their decisions," he commanded Richard 
Bellingham and Major Hathorne with two or three others 
to be chosen by the General Court "to attend upon his 
Majesty forthwith." After some discussion and delay, 
the Court pretended not to understand the order, and 
voted that they should not go, but the last business of 
the session was to send the King a present of masts for 
the Royal Navy worth nearly two thousand pounds, 
and that ended the matter. 

The records of the Suffolk Deeds contain a quaint 
story of the old Governor. In 1673 James Penniman 
testified to a conversation with him about four years 
before on the highway to Roxbury, when the Governor, 
coming riding by, asked him who pulled down the Gov- 
ernor's fence. He replied that the road was so bad that 
travellers often took down the fence to mend it. The 
Governor seemed troubled and said, "I have given 
Angola the Negro a piece of my land fronting on the 
highway of fifty feet square." 

"If your Worship now you are a giveing will be 
pleased to give mee a piece, I would thank you and 
accept of itt." 



12 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

"Thou never didst that for mee which hee hath 
done, he was the only Instrument that under God Saved 
my life, comeing to mee with his boate when I was sunke 
in the River betweene Boston and winisimet Severall 
years since, and laid hold of mee and got me into the 
boate he came in and saved my life." 

"Also Meneno Negro saith that some foure yeare 
since being at Carrying of the Late Govern"^* Richards 
Bellingham Esq"^ Wood into his yard when wee that 
is my Selfe & Angola had done, the Governor giveing 
us a Cup of Sack Said Stroaking Angola on the head 
I have given you a piece of Land of fivety foot square." 

Only the Governor's son Samuel in London outlived 
him. In 1642 he graduated at Harvard College, and he 
afterwards went to Europe to study medicine. He received 
his degree at Ley den and married in London about 1695 
a widow from Boston in Massachusetts. Another 
son John also graduated at Harvard College, in 1660, 
but he died about 1670, and the Governor himself 
died December 7, 1672. His estate of three thou- 
sand two hundred and forty-four pounds was left 
mainly for charity, but fate would have it that the old 
lawyer's will was set aside by the Court as not properly 
drawn. Mrs. Bellingham lived a widow for thirty years, 
till 1702. 

In the northwest corner of the Granary Burying 
Ground, very near the spot where he built his mansion 
so long ago, is the Governor's tomb. There are two 
great slabs of sandstone separated by six graceful columns. 
The visitor is surprised to read on the upper one the name 
of Governor James Sullivan, for the tomb was assigned 
to him by the Selectmen, as the Bellingham family was 
extinct. The lower slab has the inscription for the older 
Governor, ending thus: 



GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM 13 

Virtue's fast friend within this tomb doth lie, 
A foe to bribes, but rich in charity. 

This grave is remarkable for another reason. The 
soil here is damp and springy. More than a century 
after it was first sealed up, when the new owner took 
possession, the coflSn and remains of the old Governor 
were found floating about in the ancient vault. Not 
even in the grave could his stormy life find a peaceful end. 



1591 — 1672 



Chapter II 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 

The land that is now Bell'ngham was very late in 
being settled by white men; most of it remained only "the 
common or undivided land of Dedham" till 1719, though 
Mendon on the west became an independent town in 1667, 
Wrentham on the east in 1673, Sherborn on the north 
in 1674, Medway in 1713, and Attleborough on the south 
in 1694, The first reason for this delay was fear of the 
Indians, whose ravages in King Philip's War on all sides 
of this territory kept away newcomers and drove away 
those who were already settled there. 

They had been feared for some years before, as 
appears from the following promise of those nearest to 
bur town; "To the Honered Governr Depty Governor 
Magistrates and Deputies now sitting in the General 
Court at Boston Apr 29 1668. The humble submis- 
sion and subjection of the Native Indian Sagamore & 
people of Nepmuck. Inhabiting within the bounds of 
the Patent of Mass and neare adjoining unto the English 
Towns settled of Mendham (Mendon) and Marlborough. 
We being convinced of our great sins & how good it is 
to turn unto the Lord and bee his servants by praying 
and calling upon his name: We doe solemnly before God 
and this Courte give iurselves up soe to doe. Also wee, 
finding by experience how good it is to live under laws & 
good govermnent & finding how much we need the pro- 
tection of the English, doe fully out of our own motion 
& voluntary choice subject ourselves to the government 

u 



KING Philip's war 15 

of the Mass. To the Honored General Court; to the 
Honord Governor Deputy Governor & Assistants to 
be ruled and protected by them. And we doe humbly 
entreat that we may be favorably accepted." After 
nine names and signs is written: "These have subscribed 
in the name and with the consent of all the rest." 

King Philip claimed to own the land in Dedham, 
and in 1669 he received twenty-two pounds eight shillings 
for that part which lay beyond Wrentham, later the 
principal part of our town. Probably men went there 
for meadow hay in summer, as they did to Wrentham. 
If any early settlements were made, they must have 
been abandoned when the people of Wrentham deserted 
their homes and took their families to Dedham; the 
Dedham selectmen had been warned by the General 
Court in 1673 to prepare for an Indian war. 

The danger appeared in a murder there four years 
before the war began, though there is nothing to show 
that Philip himself knew of it. Young Zachary Smith, 
a traveler, spent the night at a house there in April, 1671, 
and was found dead in "Dedham Woods" the next day. 
Three Indians had passed the same way after him that 
morning, known to the English there, calling themselves 
King Philip's men. They threw stones and called out 
insults as they passed. In a few days they were tried 
in court and one of them was convicted and executed 
on the gallows on Boston Common. This Indian was 
the son of Matoonas, sachem of the Nipmucks living at 
Pakachoag near Worcester. The best historian of the 
time remarked that this son of Matoonas. "being vexed 
in his Mind that the Design against the English intended 
to begin in 1671 did not take Place, out of mear Malice 
and Spight against them, slew an Englishman traveling 
along the Road." 



16 HISTOKY OF BELLINGHAM 

What is generally called the first attack of the 
Indians in this war came at Swansea, June 24, 1675, 
when eight or nine white people were killed. Then on 
July 14, only a few miles from our territory, four or five 
persons in the field were killed by Nipmucks at Mendon, 
and "their leader was Matoonas, a grave and sober con- 
stable of Sachem John." The next year he and other 
Nipmuck chiefs begged for peace in a letter to the Gov- 
ernor. A proclamation of pardon was issued for all 
Indians who surrendered, and Sagamore John came to 
Boston for that purpose. His surrender was accepted 
and he came again with one hundred and sixty followers 
asking mercy, and "he brought down bound with Cords 
Old Matoonas and his son Nehemiah Prisoners. This 
Matoonas his eldest Son had been tryed at Boston and 
executed about 5 or 6 years ago, and his Head fastened 
to a Pole, at one End of the Gallows." 

Matoonas had been accused before of saying that he 
would take vengeance on the English for his son's exe- 
cution, but had denied it and been discharged. "But 
after King Philip began his Murthers in PljTnouth Colony, 
this Salvage first appeared an Enemy to us, and slew the 
two first men that were killed within the limits of our 
Colony, to wit at Mendham. He was by the Council 
the same day adjudged to be shot to Death, which was 
executed in Boston Common by three Indians; and his 
Head cut off and placed upon a Pole on the Gallows 
opposite to his Son's that was there formerly hanged." 

Next to Mendon, Medfield on the other side of our 
territory was the settlement most exposed to attack, 
and here the Indians had a great success. The pastor 
Mr. Wilson wrote an urgent letter on the danger to Boston 
February 14, 1676, and one hundred soldiers came to 
join the seventy-five men there who had arms. But on 



KING Philip's war 17 

February 21 early in the morning a man found an Indian 
in his barn, and ran to the garrison house with his family, 
leaving his buildings in flames. Probably this early sur- 
prise of the red man prevented even greater destruction 
by them, but thirty-two houses and other buildings were 
burned and seventeen persons were killed, including a 
man nearly one hundred years old who was burned. It is 
supposed that the soldiers had been dismissed at day- 
light. The town cannon was fired as a signal to Dedham, 
and at the second shot the savages rushed across the 
bridge towards Medway and then set it afire. In view 
of the town they then roasted an ox. This paper they 
left at the end of the bridge: "Know by this paper that 
the Indians that thou hast provoked to wrath and anger 
will war these 21 years if you will. There are many 
Indians left. We come three hundred at this time. You 
must consider that the Indians loose nothing but their 
lives, you must loose your fair houses and cattle." 

A partly educated Indian called James the Printer, 
who had been apprenticed at that trade, had run away 
and joined Philip's men, and this proclamation was sup- 
posed to be his work. This attack on Medfield is said 
to have been led by "One-eyed John." At Groton after- 
wards he boasted that he had burned Lancaster and 
Medfield, and would burn Chelmsford, Concord, Water- 
town, Cambridge, Roxbury and Boston. "What me 
will, me do." He was hung in Boston the next September. 

Soon after this attack a Wrentham man named 
Rocket, searching for a stray horse, discovered a trail 
of Indians moving westward. He followed them till 
sunset, and watched the company of forty-two men 
encamp for the night. They were on their way home 
after the burning of Medfield. He returned quickly to 
Wrentham, the women, invalids and children were gath- 



18 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

ered into the fortified houses, and a little company of 
thirteen men marched out in the darkness. Their 
leader was Capt. Robert Ware, whose wife's nephew 
was John Metcalf, the first of his name to settle at Cary- 
ville in 1738. At daybreak when the Indians arose 
from sleep near a precipitous rock nearly all at the same 
time, they received the simultaneous fire of twelve guns, 
and many of them were injured also by jumping from 
the rock; twenty or twenty-four were killed, and the 
Wrentham men all returned home safe. Mr. Rocket 
received a pension from the State for the rest of his life. 

The Indians came near our town again later, but 
accomplished nothing. There were about twelve families 
living at Bogastow in Millis, who had no white neighbors 
west and northwest of them nearer than the Connecticut 
River, only Mendon on the southwest, and to the east 
the Charles River and its swamps. Here Jonathan 
Fairbanks and his neighbors had built a house sixty 
or seventy feet long of flat stones "laid in dry mortar," 
of two stories with a double row of portholes lined with 
white oak plank, " superior to any fortress on the frontier." 
The upper story was tor women and children, and there 
was a separate room for the sick. This house became 
a refuge for two generations, and not a few children 
were born here. When Medfield was burned there were 
probably fifty-nine persons in this house. They could 
see the smoke and hear the cannon. A Bogastow man 
was killed then, and his brother was scalped, but he 
recovered. The victim's wife bore a daughter named 
Silence when the sad news came, and died in a few hours. 
This orphan later married John Holbrook, who was an 
infant in the stone house at the time. 

The Indians came the next day as was expected, and 
burned the houses on their way, but they soon went off. 



KING Philip's war 19 

Three months later they came again, and rolled a cart 
with blazing flax down a slope towards the fort, in order 
to kindle the thatched roof. It struck against a rock 
and stopped, and the Indian who ran down to push it 
forward was quickly shot. Then they retreated. Two 
months later they came again, but the settlers promptly 
scattered them. 

There was no more fighting in this vicinity, though 
there were alarms for several years. On one of these 
occasions when the neighbors had assembled in the stone 
house, a woman was left alone with her baby a mile and 
a half away at twilight, and she was afraid to make the 
journey. She arranged her house to look as if deserted, 
went to the cellar, shut the trap door, and sat on the 
steps with the baby in her arms all night. This boy 
afterwards married a woman who could remember at 
the age of ninety-six having fled in childhood for safety 
to the same old stone house. 

King Philip succeeded in uniting almost every tribe 
of the red men from Maine to Connecticut, and they 
began the war along a line of almost two hundred miles 
within three weeks. It lasted more than a year. Its 
greatest single battle occurred in December, 1675, when 
a thousand men marched from Dedham to a swamp 
stockade of the Indians in Rhode Island and triumphed 
after three hours' work. A thousand Indians and sixty 
white men were killed that day. 

Another engagement was fought by Dedham and 
Medfield men the next July, when thirty-six white men 
and nine friendly Indians overtook and killed or captured 
fifty of the enemy. At this time Sachem Pomhain was 
killed. "This Pomham after he was wounded so as 
that he could not stand upon his legs, and was thought 
to have been dead, made a shift (as the Souldiers were 



20 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

pursuing others) to crawl a little out of the way, but was 
found again, and when an English man drew near to 
him, though he could not stand, he did (like a dying Beast) 
in rage & revenge get hold on that Souldier's head, 
and had liked to have killed him, had not another come 
in to his help, and rescued him out of the inraged dying 
hands of the bloody Barbarian, who had been a great 
promoter of the Narraganset War." 

Finally in August, 1676, Captain Church, the best 
leader against the savages, found Philip on the edge of a 
swamp at midnight, and stationed a white man and an 
Indian in pairs all about the place. Philip came rushing 
out at dawn half dressed and was shot. He fell on his 
face in the muddy water with his gun under him, "and 
a doleful great naked dirty beast he looked like," says 
Church. The dead chief was beheaded and quartered 
according to the English law against treason, after this 
address by the Indian who did it: "You have been one 
very great man. You have made many a man afraid 
of you. But so big as you be, I will now chop you to 
pieces." His remarkable hand, "much scarred by the 
splitting of a Pistol in it formerly," was given to his 
executioner to exhibit, "and accordingly he got many 
a Penny by it." His head was exposed on a pole at 
Plymouth, on a day for public Thanksgiving, and remained 
there nearly twenty-five years. His wife and child, 
like some of the other captives, were sold for slaves in 
the Bermudas. 

This was the end of the man who had struck such 
a terrific blow at the young settlements. Of five thou- 
sand men of military age in Massachusetts and Plymouth 
colonies one in ten was killed or captured, besides many 
women and children. Of eighty or ninety towns in 
eastern New England forty were badly burned, and a dozen 



KING Philip's war 21 

totally destroyed. More than half the towns in what 
is now Massachusetts suffered devastation. No help from 
England was asked or given, but the Connecticut colony 
sent a gift of a thousand bushels of corn. Over one 
hundred thousand pounds was spent on military forces, 
which was said to be more than the entire personal 
property of the inhabitants. 



Chapter III 
SECRETARY RAWSON AND HIS FARM 

Edward Rawson, the first white owner of Caryville 
and North Bellingham the Puritan Secretary of the Colony 
of Massachusetts, whose portrait hangs in the Registry 
of Deeds in Boston, was born in England in 1615. He 
married Rachel Perne, granddaughter of a sister of 
Edmund Grindal, a famous Archbishop of Canterbury, 
who was too friendly to the Puritans to please Queen 
Elizabeth, so that she suspended him from the duties 
of his high office for several years. Edward Rawson's 
mother was the sister of John Wilson, the first minister 
of Boston. 

The young couple came from England to Newbury, 
Mass., in 1637, and he was the second town clerk there 
for nine years. He became a selectman and a judge, 
and a member of the General Court at the age of twenty- 
three. After serving as clerk of the General Court, he 
became Secretary of the Colony in 1650, and held that 
high office till his death. Johnson's " Wonder Working 
Providence" says: "Mr. Edward Rawson, a young man 
yet employed in Commonwealth affairs a long time, 
being of ripe capacity, a good penman and eloquent 
inditer, hath been chosen Secretary of the Colony." 
His position now required him to live in Boston, and his 
house stood on Bromfield Street, which was called Raw- 
son's Lane till 1800. He sold house lots there bordering 
on the Common. His salary gradually rose from twenty 

22 





i^a^ cAay^JokL yie^^<vT/^ 



1615—1693 



SECRETARY RAWSON AND HIS FARM 23 

pounds to eighty pounds, and his fam'ly increased to 
twelve children. He was one of the twenty-eight persons 
who left the First Church in 1660 to form the Old South 
Church. He served as a steward for the English Society 
for Propagating the Gospel especially among the Indians. 
One thing to be regretted in his long and honored life 
was his zeal in persecuting Quakers, for his name often 
appears as their accuser, but he may easily have thought 
this a part of his duty as Secretary, whatever his own 
inclination was. He published two little books, " Rev- 
olution in New England Justified," and " The General 
Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts." 

Edward Rawson's eighth child was Rebecca, who 
lived only ten days, but the ninth was also named 
Rebecca, and her sad, true story is the main interest in 
the poet Whittier's romance, "Margaret Smith's Journal." 
She was born in 1656, and carefully educated. She was 
called "one of the most beautiful, polite and accom- 
plished young ladies of Boston, tall and graceful, with 
a pleasant wit." An authentic picture presents her to 
us in a very elaborate dress. A very pleasing young man 
appeared in town, who gave his name as Sir Thomas 
Hale, Jr., the nephew of the famous Chief Justice of 
England. He soon became her suitor, and they "were 
married in the presence of near forty witnesses" in 1679 
and sailed away with many fine clothes to England. 
After landing there they went to the home of one of her 
relatives, and early the next morning he took the keys 
of their trunks, which were not yet brought from the vessel, 
and said that he would return for dinner. When the 
trunks came, they were empty, and she never saw him 
again. On inquiring at the inn it was found that his 
true name was Thomas Rumsey, and that he had gone 
back to his wife at Canterbury. In Boston it appeared 



24 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

later that he had borrowed two hundred and fifty pounds 
of John Hill, the Colony Treasurer. A witness in court 
there testified that the same man had engaged to work 
for him one year as a bookkeeper in 1679. He said his 
father had died leaving him four hundred pounds a 
year. Later he reported that he was a nobleman and 
that his mother. Lady Hale, sent him bills of exchange, 
and that his father's estate was so large that "he durst 
not report it, for he would not be believed." Such stories 
as these he made use of to "put a cheat on Mr. Edward 
Rawson, to accomplish his abominable villainy and 
deceive him of his daughter." 

The deserted bride lived in England for thirteeen 
years, supporting herself and her daughter by painting 
on glass and similar arts, determined not to be dependent 
on her relatives there. " Finally, after countless requests, 
she consented to return to Boston for a visit." One of 
her relatives in England had children, and she left her 
daughter with that family. She sailed with an uncle 
of hers in a ship that he owned, and they arrived at Port 
Royal, Jamaica. While they were there, in 1692, a 
great earthquake swallowed the ship and part of the 
town. Her uncle happened to be ashore at the time, 
and he alone of all the ship's company was left to tell 
the tale. 

The eleventh child of Secretary Rawson was Grindal, 
born in 1659, and graduated at Harvard College in 1678. 
On that occasion the President said, in Latin, speaking 
to the three leading men in the class: "The third, some- 
what high-sounding, is Grindal Rawson; sprung like- 
wise from a most illustrious stock; for his honored father 
holds a high place in the State, the very pious and orthodox 
John Wilson, a truly apostolic man, was his grandmother's 
brother, and the Right Reverend Edward Grindal, 



SECRETARY RAWSON AI^D HIS FARM 25 

Archbishop of Canterbury, a most saintly man and in 
the Archbishopric little less than a Puritan, his great great 
grandmother's brother. And may God grant that in 
learning, holiness and excellence of character he may 
resemble both Wilson and Grindal." He studied theology 
with his brother-in-law, the minister at Weymouth, and 
preached his first sermon at Medfield with great success. 
After only two months' preaching in other places, he went 
to Men don in 1680, where he was permanently settled in 
1684. His salary was fifty-five pounds and one cord of wood 
for every forty-acre lot in town, and he was to keep the 
house and lot which he then occupied. He married 
his second cousin Susannah Wilson of Medfield, and they 
had twelve children. His wife wrote that he was invited 
to other places larger than this "of about 20 families 
recovering from a tedious war. But these few sheep 
in the wilderness lay much upon his heart." Five years 
before he came, the Indians had burned every building 
in town, and all the inhabitants had fled. He served 
there faithfully for over thirty-five years, till his death 
at sunset on a Lord's Day in 1715, and so for a gener- 
ation more of our first settlers knew him as their pastor 
than any other man. 

He divided his large town into five districts and 
preached in one of them every Friday, and catechised the 
children there. At one time the Quakers and Independ- 
ents of Rhode Island threatened him seriously; it would 
be a great triumph for them to drive out the young min- 
ister, the son of the old Puritan secretary. They held 
opposition meetings at their end of the town for a year 
or two, and had two or three public debates with him, 
but finally "they grew weary" and left him and the town 
in peace. 

He learned the language of the Indians in nine 



26 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

months "though 2 years were usually required," and 
"preached to their good understanding." He made 
it an article of his church covenant not to sell them rum, 
and the only man tried by him for breaking that covenant 
had committed that offence. There is an interesting 
printed report of an official visit to the Indians of Southern 
Massachusetts which took nearly all of June, 1698, by 
"Grindal Rawson and Samuel Danforth, Preachers to 
the Indians in their own tongue." The next year he 
printed a book of one hundred and sixty small pages in the 
English and Indian languages alternately, whose intro- 
duction says: 

"It was an effect of this holy zeal that caused your- 
selves Honorable and Reverend to command me the 
Service of Translating The Confession of Faith made 
by the Churches in Boston in 1680 into the Indian 
Language, a work never yet attempted by any. 

"From my chamber in Brantrey Nov 4 1699." 

"There was never a Council in all the Neighboring 
Towns but he was at it. Also his voyage as Chaplain 
with the fleet to Canada and his Half Year in service at 
Nantucket (with Indians) will not be soon forgotten. 
His flock increased from 20 to over 100 families. He 
was a great peacemaker: in 35 years he had no considerable 
difference." 

His wife wrote: "He was the greatest observer of 
the Lord's Day that I ever took notice of." 

In 1709 he offered to board free a Latin schoolmaster 
for the town, so that fitting for college became a part 
of public education in this town perhaps earlier than 
anywhere else in Massachusetts. 

In the same year he preached the Election Sermon 
before the Governor and the General Court at Boston, 
and it was printed. He mentioned sins of "Apostasy 



SECRETARY RAWSON AND HIS FARM 27 

from tlie faith and practice of the fathers. Places live 
without the Settled Means of Grace. Profanity is com- 
mon. The Sabbath is Horribly Profaned and polluted. 
Ignorant prophane and prayerless families abound. 
The shameful and worse than Brutish sin of drunken- 
ness is seen. How little care there is, especially in country 
towns, for the liberal education of children! Many 
such towns study Tricks and Shifts to evade the School 
Laws. Behold, behold O New England, the Cause thy 
God hath to be angry with thee!" 

His gravestone, still to be seen in Mendon, was 
erected by a vote of the town twenty-eight years after 
his death, so that his life and public service might not 
be forgotten. 



lyK-^i^i^ (><^ %/v.( 



1659 — 1715 

The large family of Edward Rawson was not sup- 
ported by his salary alone, but he was also granted land 
at various times by the General Court. One such tract 
lay unincorporated for a long time, and became almost 
as well known as the towns which surrounded it, under 
the name of Rawson's Farm. 

It was confirmed to him by the General Court as 
follows in 1685: 

"In answer to the humble motion & request of 
Edward Rawson who having purchased a small tract 
upland & meadow of Thomas Awassamoage son & heire 
of the late sagamore John Awassamoage by him reserved 
and is Invironed with the bounds of Deadham Meade- 
field Mendon & Sherborne as in sayd Awassamoages 
sale The Court grants and doe Grant & confirm the said 



28 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

tract of land to the said Mr. Edward Rawson his heirs 
Assigns allowing the Sale of the sayd Thomas Awassa- 
moag not interfering with any former grant." 

He sold three hundred acres of it, and gave his oldest 
son William eight hundred acres during his lifetime. 
Though he owned over six thousand acres of land in all, 
he sold and distributed to his children so much that his 
estate was found insolvent at last. The first item in his 
inventory was: "740 acres of wast land lying between 
Medfield and Mendon £37" (about twenty-five cents 
an acre). This remainder was sold by his administrator, 
William Rawson, in 1701, to three men, William Hay ward 
and Thomas Sanford of Swansea and Thomas Burch 
of Bristol, Hayward paying one-half and the others 
one-fourth each. They also bought the eight hundred 
acres of him the year before. The whole Farm was 
described in this deed as surveyed and laid out by Cap- 
tain Thomas Thurston of Medfield, "Bounded with 
Charles River Mendon & Sherborne and Touching in a 
point upon Medfield, which whole tract contains 1840 
acres more or less." This territory included Caryville 
and North Bellingham and with a smaller area beside 
it on the west taken from Mendon, made about a third 
of the new town of Bellingham; the other two-thirds to the 
south was common land of the town of Dedham. 



Chapter IV 
THE TWO PIONEERS, BAPTIST AND QUAKER 

The men of Dedham went to their common land in 
both Wrentham and BelHngham in the summer to get 
hay from the meadows several years before King Philip's 
War, and Wrentham was incorporated as a town in 
1673. After only two years that war came, and the 
settlers had to abandon their new homes and go back 
to Dedham as they had already done twice before, in 
fear of the Indians. In Bellingham no settlement had 
yet been made, as far as can now be known. There is 
only a vague tradition of a fort or house of refuge from 
Indians just north of the North Bellingham Cemetery. 
The overthrow of the Indians was so complete that the 
English soon recovered from their fears, though a few 
scattered red men remained, in some cases required to 
live with certain white as guardians. Though every 
house in Mendon was burned in December, 1675, and 
the people fled through Bellingham towards Boston, yet 
half of them returned, and six children were born there 
in the next two years. 

The colonists of the other towns began to spread 
out again, and in 1691 the Dedham selectmen sent two 
men to examine the land that afterwards became Bell- 
ingham. They reported "Jan ye 4th 1692 ye Land neer 
Mendham (Blackstone was then a part of Mendon) and 
Wrentham is not worth ye laying out in a Devident" 
(for division). But on June 7, 1698, "the proprietors 

29 



30 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

of the common or undivided lands of Dedham" met by 
appointment and were informed by another committee 
that they contained about twenty-one hundred acres, 
and they agreed to draw lots of about one hundred acres 
each. "Jacob Bartlat did move for liberty to take up 
his proportion in the place where he has Sat down & 
made Sum Improvement this was voted provided con- 
venient highways be reserved. Nicolas Cook likewise 
moved ... to take up about fourty acres of land in part 
of his proportion neer his own land this was voted." 
These two men may be called the pioneers of the town, 
and each has an interesting story. 

They were both men of strong and independent 
character, and both belonged more to the Rhode Island 
Colony of that time than to Massachusetts, as was true 
of most of their neighbors for a long time. They were 
border men who belonged outside the strict Puritan 
Colony. In fact Bellingham was largely a Rhode Island 
town that happened to fall within Massachusetts territory. 
That decision may seem unimportant in these days, but 
it was not so then, and the fundamental difference of 
the two colonies is by far the most important fact in the 
early history of the town. 

What Massachusetts was at that time, is quickly 
seen from the early acts of its General Court, as the 
legislature of the colony was called. A company of 
men had been chartered in England to trade in the new 
world, whose members were all Puritans, but they turned 
their trading company into a theocracy, or rule of God 
on earth, and the commonwealth became a church, 
"administered for and by God." 

At the beginning, in 1630, the General Court ordered 
that ministers of the churches be supported at the public 
expense. After 1631 no man could be admitted as a 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 31 

freeman or voter unless a member of one of these churches. 
After 1635 every person absent from a church service 
must be fined or imprisoned. After 1636 no new church 
could be formed without the approval of the magistrates 
and the existing churches. In 1638 the ministers advised 
the General Court that it could punish heresies or errors 
of church members that might be dangerous to the 
state. In 1640 a jury found Hugh Buet (later of Rhode 
Island) "to bee guilty of heresy & that his person and 
errors are dangerous for infection of others. " He should 
"bee gone out of or jurisdiction by the 24 present upon 
paine of death & not to returne upon paine of being 
hanged." When Governor Winthrop in his last sickness 
was asked by the Deputy Governor to sign an order for 
punishment under these laws, he refused, and said he 
had "done too much of that work already." So the 
"Rule of the word of God" meant persecution. Rhode 
Island, the reactionary neighboring colony, became the 
refuge of the victims, the Baptists and Quakers. 

The Massachusetts churches baptized infants by 
sprinkling, but Baptists considered this an unscriptural 
and useless ceremony, because the infants could not under- 
stand it. The sect of Anabaptists arose in Germany about 
1521, and it was suppressed by the government for its 
disturbances of the peace. They insisted that no one 
should join a church without being rebaptized when he 
reached years of understanding. This is the requirement 
of Baptists generally, who also prefer the immersion of 
the whole body to sprinkling. Those who declared that 
a true church must be limited to members baptized in 
this way were called close communion Baptists. 

The Massachusetts law of 1644 for Anabaptists was 
in part: "Forasmuch as experience hath plentifully and 
often proved that since the first arising of the Anabaptists, 



32 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

about a hundred years since, they have been the incen- 
daries of commonwealths, and the infectors of prsons 
in main matters of rehgion, and the troublers of churches 
in all places where they have been and that they who 
have held the baptising of infants unlawfull have usually 
held other errors or heresies together therewith, and 
whereas divers of this kind have, since our coming into 
New England, appeared amongst ourselves. It is ordered 
and agreed, that if any person or persons within this 
jurisdiction shall either openly condemne or oppose the 
baptising of infants, or go about secretly to seduce others 
from the approbation or use thereof, . . . every such per- 
son or persons shall be sentenced to banishment." But a 
Baptist meeting was started in Boston, in 1665, and 
though its members were fined and imprisoned, yet 
after a few years it was recognized as a Christian 
church, and its supporters became free from religious 
taxes. 

The other great sect that troubled the Massachusetts 
authorities was the Quakers. Its founder was George 
Fox, who began to preach without ordination in England 
in 1648. His followers wished to abolish oaths, all cer- 
emonies that made distinctions among persons, church 
sacraments, and war; they used extremely simple worship, 
and hoped for the conscious presence and control of the 
Holy Spirit in each man's life. Fox traveled and preached 
in this country also, and some of his followers felt con- 
strained to protest publicly against the ceremonies in 
church and state which they disapproved. The Massa- 
chusetts law for these disturbers of the state was made 
in 1656: 

"Whereas there is a cursed sect of hseretics lately 
risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers, 
who take uppon themselves to be immediately sent of 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 33 

God, and infallibly assisted by the spirit to speake and 
write blasphemouth opinions, despising government and 
the order of God in church and commonwealth, speaking 
evil of dignities, reproaching and reviling magistrates 
and ministers, seeking to turne the people from the faith 
and gaine proselites to their pernicious waies, . . . this 
Courte, taking into serious consideration the premises 
and to prevent the like mischiefe as by theire meanes is 
wrought in our native land, doth heerby order that . • . 
any Quaker coming into this jurisdiction shall be forth- 
with committed to the house of correction, and be severely 
whipt, and be kept constantly at work, and none suffered 
to converse or speak with them during the time of their 
imprisonment, which shall be no longer than than necessity 
requireth. Any person proved to have the haretical 
opinions of said Quakers, or their books or papers, shall 
be fined forty shillings; for the second offence four pounds; 
for still offending, to be imprisoned till banished." 

The persecution of Quakers under this law had little 
success in keeping them away, and it led to such com- 
plaints to the King of England that he sent a Quaker mes- 
senger, himself banished from New England, with a letter 
requiring all Quakers then in jail to be sent to England 
for trial; the General Court became somewhat afraid, 
and wrote to the King as follows: 

"Although wee hope, and doubt not, but that if 
his majesty were rightly informed, he would be farr from 
giving them such a favor, or weakening his authority 
here so long and orderly settled, yet, that wee may not 
in the least offend his majesty, this Court doth hereby 
order and declare that the execution of the lawes in force 
against Quakers, as such, so farr as they respect cor- 
porall punishment or death, be suspended untill this 
Court take further order. " 



34 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

The King's reply commanded them to forbear to 
proceed any further therein, but to send the said persons, 
whether condemned or only imprisoned, to England to 
be tried there; still he instructed his commissioners to 
New England as follows: 

"Wee cannot be understood hereby to direct or 
wish that any indulgence should be granted to those 
persons commonly called Quakers, whose principles 
being inconsistent with any kind of government, wee 
have found it necessary, by the advice of our Parliament 
here, to make sharp lawes against them, and are well 
contented that you doe the like there. " 

When the Massachusetts laws were revised in 1672, 
the banishment of Quakers was not omitted, and "If 
any Christian in this jurisdiction shall go about to destroy 
the Christian religion by broaching and maintaining 
any damnable heresies, ... or shall openly condemn 
or oppose the baptizing of infants, or shall deny the lawful 
authority of magistrates to punish outward breaches 
of the first table (that part of the Ten Commandments 
which states men's duties towards God) or shall endeavor 
to seduce others, . . . every such person . . . shall be 
banished". 

Another law as late as 1675 was: "Whereas it may 
be found among us, that men's thresholds are sett up 
by God's threshold, especially in the open meetings of 
Quakers, whose damnable Hoerisies, abominable idol- 
atries, are hereby promoted, embraced and practised 
to the scandall of religion, hazard of souls, and provo- 
cation of divine jealousy against this people; for pre- 
vention and reformation whereof, it is ordered by this 
Courte that every person found at a Quaker's meeting 
shall be apprehended and committed to the house of 
correction." 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 35 

So the Quakers had to suffer in both countries; in 
England twelve thousand were in jail at one time, and a 
tenth of them are thought to have died there. The Massa- 
chusetts men clung to their pious ideal of a theocracy as 
long as they could, and saw no lesson for them in Roger 
Williams' beautiful comparison of the officers of the ship 
of state with those of a ship upon the sea. He thought 
that men of all religions or of none could safely be allowed 
to be citizens as well as passengers, being controlled by 
civil laws alone. More than once the other colonies 
urged Rhode Island to suppress the Quakers. Its reply 
in 1657 was : " Wee have no law to punish any for declaring 
their minds on the ways of God, And we finde that where 
they are suffered to declare themselves most freely, 
there they least of all desire to come . . . And yet we 
conceive that their doctrines tend to overturning govern- 
ment among men if generally received." 

The founder of the Rhode Island Colony,the refuge 
of these two sects, and its guide for almost fifty years, 
was this famous Roger Williams. He was a protesting 
clergyman of England, who refused to be the assistant 
pastor at Boston, when he found that the people there 
would not utterly condemn the English Church and 
separate from it. The Plymouth colonists were Separ- 
atists, and he served them for two years. But they 
found him "very unsettled in judgment," and were 
willing to have him leave them for Salem. He taught 
that magistrates could not enforce any religious duties, 
that the King of England could give the colonists no 
right to occupy the land that belonged to Indians, that 
the King had said what was not true, and that no man 
not a church member could rightly take an oath, nor 
the State require it of him. Finally he wrote a letter 
to the other churches, accusing the Massachusetts mag- 



3b HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

istrates, and refused communion with his own church 
at Salem unless it would separate from the other churches, 
which would not join him in his controversy. Thus he 
was banished from Massachusetts in 1636, and went 
first to Seekonk, east of Providence. When he was 
notified in a friendly way that this land belonged to the 
Plymouth Colony, he crossed the river and became the 
founder of the present second city of New England, and of 
a state where "soul liberty" prevailed. The first agree- 
ment made there was to obey orders of the majority for 
the public good, "only in civill things." 

A year or more after coming to Providence, he 
became interested in the Baptists, though his preaching 
had not included their views before. He "repented" 
of his baptism in childhood in the Church of England, 
and was now baptized by a poor man who had never 
been baptized himself, after which Williams baptized 
him and ten other persons. But within a few weeks he 
concluded that this new baptism of his was unlawful and 
invalid. His followers, however, then founded the 
Baptist Church of Providence, the first one in this country. 
He became interested in baptism by immersion about 
ten years later. 

Referring to Williams' loss of influence in his own 
colony at one time, John Cotton said, sarcastically, 
that he was "superseded with the rabble by a more 
prodigious minter of exorbitant novelties than himself." 

Williams went to England twice for the charter of 
his colony, and wrote several books of religious con- 
troversy. In spite of his many strange ideas and his 
great fondness for dispute, he was a lovable man, and 
Winthrop, the Massachusetts Governor, was always 
his friend. In one of his many letters Winthrop wrote, 
"We have often tried your patience, but could never 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 37 

conquer it." When the Indians offered Williams the 
island of Prudence to keep swine on, he proposed to 
Winthrop that they buy it together, for twenty fathoms 
of wampum and two coats, which they did. Its next 
owner was the grandfather of two of the first settlers of 
Bellingham, John and Sylvanus Scott. 

Williams always kept the friendship of the Indians, 
and served both them and the white men many times 
in his long life as a peacemaker. In King Philip's War 
when the people of the main land generally fled to Rhode 
Island itself, and the citizens of the town of Warwick 
even set up their town government there on the island, 
he remained at Providence unterrified with twenty-seven 
other persons. He tried to tolerate all kinds of difference 
of opinion in both civil and religious matters as men do 
now, and his colony welcomed many a man who found 
either Massachusetts or Plymouth uncomfortable. 

Cotton Mather scornfully said: "Rhode Island 
was occupied by Antinomians, Anabaptists, Quakers, 
Ranters and every thing else but Christians; and if any 
man has lost his religion, he may find it in this general 
muster of opinions, this receptacle of the convicts of 
Jerusalem and the outcasts of the land. " Another witness 
of that time, who could not appreciate religious tolera- 
tion, a Dutch minister in New York, wrote of Rhode 
Island, "where all kinds of scum dwell, for it is nothing 
else than a sink of New England." 

The first man to come from Massachusetts was the 
mysterious William Blackstone. When the first white 
settlers reached Boston in 1630, they found him there 
apparently living alone. He took the oath of a citizen 
the next year, but never joined the church as the law 
after that time required. In fact he was an ordained 
clergyman of the Church of England, who had escaped 



38 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

to this wilderness to be alone. In 1634 he grew tired of 
his neighbors, sold nearly all his land for thirty pounds, 
bought cows with the money and moved to Rhode Island. 
There he built a house that he called Study Hall, near 
Abbott's Run, close to the great river later named for 
him, and lived in seclusion, not without quarrels with 
his neighbors, as court records show, for forty years. He 
married a widow in 1659, and his descendants were few 
and lived rather solitary lives. He used to preach in 
Providence at times, and he gave children whom he met 
apples from his own trees, which were the first ones planted 
in both colonies. When he was old he used to ride down 
to Providence on a tame white bull. He died in 1675, 
just before King Philip's War, "which laid waste his 
fair domain." He had some three hundred acres of 
land and one hundred and eighty-six books. The house 
was burned and these were all lost. When Blackstone 
left Boston he said: "I came from England because I 
did not like the Lord Bishops, but I can not join with you 
because I would not be under the Lords Brethren. " 

About four miles from the home of this strange man, 
settled John Bartlett, the father of the first known inhab- 
itant of Bellingham. He had lived in Weymouth and 
Mendon before. His house was near the present Lonsdale 
Railroad station, and he was one of the richest men of the 
colony, for his inventory in 1684 amounted to thirteen 
hundred pounds. His son, Jacob, our first citizen, grew 
up in a home of comfort and even more, where "soul 
liberty" was the first principle of society. The first 
land bought in Bellingham was purchased in 1696 by 
a man who believed that that government is best which 
governs least, and whose first public religious duty was 
to protest against the forms of the church. How could 
he then choose his home on land of the strictest Puritan 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 39 

colony? He probably hoped to live outside it, and some 
of his deeds to his sons long after this time describe the 
land sold as being in either the Plymouth or the Massa- 
chusetts Colony, In fact his first purchase may now lie 
in Rhode Island, for the colony bounds were disputed 
even fifty years after his coming, and Bellingham seemed 
to lose almost a third of its valuation in 1746, when as a 
part of Attleboro Gore it was given by King George II to 
Rhode Island under the name of Cumberland. It was 
a No Man's Land that James Albee of Mendon sold to 
Jacob Bartlett of Providence in 1696, for five pounds, 
described as nine cow common rights undivided in the 
common land between Wrentham and Mendon. This 
deed was recorded in 1736, just forty years later. The 
purchase was confirmed to him by the Dedham vote of 
1698. In 1713 again he received thirty-six acres by a 
vote at Dedham, and the book of records calls this their 
first grant of land. He acquired several other tracts 
here in the next twenty years. 

Our first settler had little to fear from wild beasts. 
The town of Dedham had offered a reward of ten shillings 
for every wolf killed in early years, and this was increased 
to twenty in 1698, when very few were left. Six pence 
were offered for a rattlesnake in 1719, and twenty shillings 
for a wildcat, and they soon disappeared. The savage 
red men were gone, and Jacob Bartlett had only the 
strict laws of Massachusetts to fear; he escaped them for 
nearly thirty years, but found himself in Boston in prison 
at last for refusing to support the town church. 

In 1738 he deeded his homestead to his son Joseph, 
who was very pious and was called a poet, and died in 
1791, Joseph's brother Abner married Abigail Arnold 
in 1734. As a Quaker he was exempt from the Bellingham 
tax to support the town church in 1741. She died in 



40 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

1815, at the age of one hundred and four years. (Another 
Quaker, John Aldrieh, of Mendon, had twelve children 
all alive when the youngest was sixty, and their mother 
reached one hundred.) A third son of our pioneer was 
Jacob, Jr., who bought a part of his father's farm, and 
made scythes. 

This first family in Bellingham lived in a true pioneer's 
region, with little interference from church or state. None 
of their births are found in town records, for the Quakers 
kept their own. They disapproved of inscriptions on 
gravestones, as being too ostentatious. All men should 
be equal in the grave, they thought. 

Two traditions of Jacob Bartlett have been found 
in the vicinity of his farm, now East Woonsocket. He 
had a sick child one very cold day in winter, and walked 
across the Great River several miles to Sayles Hill for 
some milk, and found the cow frozen dead. Again when 
a dear child of his died, he kept the body so long that one 
of the neighbors knocked on his door one dark night and 
said, "Jacob, Jacob, bury thy dead." The answer was, 
"Yea, Lord, I will bury him in the morning." Their 
family burying ground had about two dozen rough stones 
left in 1879, and the old house then stood at the end of a 
lane from the highway, supposed to be one hundred and 
eighty-three years old. When Cumberland went to 
Rhode Island none of this family were left in Belling- 
ham. 

The intolerance of Massachusetts made trouble 
for Baptists as well as Quakers, and our second pioneer 
settler was a Baptist. His father, Walter Cook, like 
Jacob Bartlett' s father, had moved from Weymouth to 
Mendon. With his sons John and Samuel he headed a 
temperance society there in 1685, promoted by Rev. 
Grindal Rawson, whose land joined his own. Nicholas 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 41 

Cook was born there in 1660 and died in 1730. He 
married Joanna Rockett or Rockwood in 1684, and again 
in 1712 Mehitable Staples, both of Mendon. In 1705 
land was laid out to him east of the Great River (Black- 
stone), and on both sides of Peters River. In 1706 
"Nicholas Cook in behalf of himself and several of his 
neighbors, being new beginners and some of them very 
poor," asked relief from town taxes in Dedham for two 
years, and it was granted. In 1708 he was chosen cons- 
table for that part of the town, which shows that he 
was probably the principal citizen there. In 1713 he 
deeded land to his son Nicholas, Jr., which was partly 
in Mendon and partly in Bellingham. The next year 
there was a meeting of the proprietors of the common 
land between Wrentham and Mendon at the house of 
Deacon Thomas Sanford in Mendon (later Bellingham), 
which he soon sold to Pelatiah Smith. Capt. John Ware 
of Wrentham was moderator, and Thomas Sanford was 
chosen clerk for one year. They then drew lots for their 
second division. Their third meeting came in 1717 at 
the house of Nicholas Cook, and Thomas Sanford was 
its moderator. It was voted to complete the first and 
second divisions already made by June 30, 1717, and to 
lay out the third division after that. Two or three acres 
were voted for a burying place, the South Bellingham 
Cemetery, mentioned as "the burying place" in a deed 
of Sylvanus Scott to his son Joseph, in 1725. Here is 
still to be seen the stone of Nicholas Cook, who "Died 
Dec ye 1st 1730. In ye 71st year of his age." In 1718 
the proprietors chose a committee to ask some relief 
from their share of church expenses in Dedham, which 
was about twenty-five miles away, and to settle the line 
between their land and Wrentham. This action showed 
the need of a new town, and it is the last recorded public 



42 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

business for this territory before the new incorporation 
came. 

Nicholas Cook had been one of the chief proprietors. 
His inventory amounted to twelve hundred pounds, 
eight hundred and eighty-two pounds in real estate. 
His oldest son Josiah received seventy-two acres, Nich- 
olas, Jr., one hundred and five acres, and the most valuable 
part, thirty-seven acres valued at eight hundred pounds, 
went to the younger sons, David and Noah. Josiah 
was the first pastor of a Six Principle Baptist Church in 
Cumberland, not over two miles from his home, for 
thirty-five years, and his nephew, Nathaniel, called much 
superior to him, became his colleague in 1752, and served 
till his death in 1773 at the age of fifty-four, about a year 
before his uncle died. They found the source of their 
teaching in the sixth chapter of Hebrews: "Let us go 
on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of 
the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands &c. 
We are persuaded better things of you &c." William 
Blackstone was called the founder of this church. 
James Ballou, with two brothers came from Smith- 
field, Rhode Island, across the river to Cumberland, 
and he gave the land for the church in 1732. Here both 
uncle and nephew preached without a salary, and sup- 
ported themselves with their own hands like their brethren, 
as Roger Williams had always done. "Elder Cook's 
Meeting House" was afterwards called the Ballou Meeting 
House, and the building erected in 1749 has been thought 
to be the oldest church in Rhode Island. 

Elder Nathaniel Cook's father was Nicholas, Jr., 
born in 1687, who married Elizabeth Staples. Five 
years after the land was given for his brother's church, 
the Bellingham Baptist Church was formed and he was 
its first deacon. He and his brother Seth, with their 



BAPTIST AND QUAKER 43 

father, Nicholas, all signed the petition for the incor- 
poration of Bellingham in 1719. 

John Cook was Town Treasurer from 1802 to 1808 
and John Cook, 2d, was Town Clerk from 1827 to 1837. 

One hundred and sixty births of this name were 
recorded in this town before 1850. 



Chapter V 

EARLY SETTLERS 

The new town was made up of three parts. Rawson's 
Farm was the northeastern part and contained thirteen 
families at that time, from which at least eight men signed 
the petition for incorporation; the smaller northwest 
corner came from Mendon, and the heads of its four fam- 
ilies all signed; the remaining two-thirds of the area 
belonged to Dedham, and its twenty-three families were 
represented by twenty signers. Nine other families 
came within the next ten years, and including the two 
pioneers Bartlett and Cook we have some knowledge of 
more than forty men who made the new town what it 
was in its early years. 

Richard Blood 

Richard Blood of Dedham, probably son of James 
Blood of Concord in 1639, bought in 1708 from several 
Dedham men " 18 cow common rights in undivided land 
between Mendon, Wrentham and Providence," besides 
"three score & twelve acres already laid out in Rawson's 
Farm" for ten pounds sixteen shillings. In 1714 
he bought from another Dedham man thirty-two acres 
belonging to four cow common rights in the first and sec- 
ond divisions still to be laid out. In 1736 he sold his 
homestead and one hundred and seventy-six acres in 
the south part of the town for twelve hundred pounds. 

44 



EARLY SETTLERS 45 

He was evidently well off. His wife's name was Joanna, 
and four children were born to them in 1721-9. The 
estate of Joseph his son included two bonds of five hun- 
dred pounds and three hundred and fifty pounds, and 
a total of seventeen hundred and forty-eight pounds. 
He had five children, born in 1738-48, but there were no 
other births of this name in town after that. 

Thomas Burch 

He was one of the three purchasers of Rawson's Farm 
from the secretary's son in 1701, and he bought one-fourth 
of it. He died in 1722, and his homestead was sold by his 
son Robert in 1735, one hundred and ten acres for six 
hundred and fifty pounds, to John Metcalf and Eliphalet 
Pond of Dedham. It was on both sides of the Country 
Road, as Hartford Avenue was called then, bounded 
north by Holliston and east by Charles River, now that 
part of Caryville next to Medway. His will left all his 
land to his two sons Thomas and Robert. No births of 
this name are recorded here. 

Banfield Capron 

He was one of the most prominent men in Bellingham 
in the early years, but he belonged to another town in 
1748; his land became a part of Rhode Island when 
Massachusetts lost the town of Cumberland in 1746. 
When his father Banfield was about fourteen years old, 
he left his home with three schoolmates and sailed as a 
stowaway from some port in the north of England for 
America. He married a woman of Rehoboth, and lived 
in the town of Barrington about twenty years. Banfield 
Capron, second, 1682-1752, was a large, stout, resolute 
man, a mason and a weaver. He married Hannah Jenks, 



46 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

granddaughter of the first settler of Pawtucket, and they 
had six sons and six daughters. In 1717 he bought one 
hundred acres for one hundred and twenty pounds, south 
of Peter's River, bounded south by Jacob Bartlett. In 
1718 he bought twenty acres near a road to be laid out. 
In 1726 he sold to Joseph Scott, "bloomer," and David 
Aldrich, ninety-seven acres joining his homestead on the 
Rehoboth road, and the next year twenty-five acres on 
Bungay Brook to Richard Darling, blacksmith. 

The Jenks family were handsome people who per- 
ished early like delicate flowers, and about 1738 his wife 
and six children all died within a few months. The 
doctor wept when he found two dead at once in the house. 
The son Charles, 1716-1789, married Mary, daughter of 
Joseph Scott, "bloomer," and in 1741 he bought with 
Uriah Jillson, for one hundred and forty-five pounds, 
seventy-two acres "in the Gore of land that is now in 
controversy between the Colony of Rhode Island and 
the Province of Massachusetts," bounded by the Great 
River, the Blackstone. Twelve of his children lived an 
average of seventy-five years each. The last record oi 
his father Banfield is his appointment as a juror at Provi- 
dence in 1748, when he belonged to Rhode Island. The 
Capron burying ground is still to be seen in Cumberland. 

Chtlson 

In 1699 William Chilson bought three cow common 
rights in land bounded north by Charles River, east by 
Wrentham, south by Attleboro and the Pawtucket River 
(Blackstone) and west by Mendon. One reason why this 
deed was not recorded till twenty-one years later, like 
others in the south part of the town, was the doubt whether 
it belonged to Massachusetts or Rhode Island. The 



EARLY SETTLERS 47 

same doubt may have prevented the record of any early 
Chilson births in town. In 1731, the estate of John 
Chilson sold one hundred and ten acres near Peter's 
River. In 1727, Joseph Chilson's account of the estate 
of his father William was allowed. It included land in 
Mendon besides 12 acres in Bellingham and 18 more still 
to be laid out there. Joseph was town clerk for 9 years 
with one interval, and treasurer three years. The United 
States census of 1790 names every family in Bellingham, 
but no Chilsons; three Jillsons are given John, Joseph, 
and Joshua. The two names were confused together, 
for Joseph Chilson in 1778 willed his land near Peter's 
River, equally to his three sons; Joseph took the house 
and one hundred and fifteen acres, John, one hundred 
and eighty acres to the south, and Joshua, one hundred 
and seventy acres. Forty Chilsons were born in town 
by 1850. 

Dr. John Corbet 

He and his brother Daniel were two of the most 
influential signers of the petition for the new town of 
Bellingham. They were sons of Robert Corbet from Wey- 
mouth, who married Priscilla Rockwood of Mendon in 
1682. Their land was at South Milford, on both sides of 
the Country Road. This was the oldest road in Belling- 
ham, for it led from Mendon, the mother town, to Medfield 
and Boston, and had been used already for over half a 
century. 

In 1669 a committee was chosen in Medfield to join one 
from Mendon "for the settling of the Common Rode way 
from town to town." It was laid out the next year, and 
became a part of the post road through Hartford from 
Boston to New York. Through travel was so scarce for 
a long time that as late as 1732 a monthly stage was 



48 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

started between Boston and New York, taking two weeks 
each way. 

The Hartford Turnpike, now Hartford Avenue, was 
incorporated about 1796, and one of the toll houses was 
at the present Green Store. A keeper who lived there 
was so shiftless that when his charitable neighbors planted 
potatoes for him in the spring, they were at once dug and 
eaten up. The Corbet land began opposite the Bicknell 
Cemetery and reached along this road to the north beyond 
the Charles River, which was called the Second Bridge 
River, because the Mendon people had crossed Mill 
River just before they reached the Corbet land as they 
started for Boston. The larger part of this land fell within 
the new town. 

John Corbet was the oldest son, born in 1683, and 
he was brought up in a liberal way by his grandfather, 
John Rockwood, whose property he inherited. He was the 
first educated doctor in this region. He married in 1703, 
Mehitable Rockwood, born in 1683, and had six children. 
He had a good practice for twenty-three years, and died 
in 1726. 

Some of the items in his estate were these: 

Apparel 33£ Bills of credit 82£ Bees 31 s. 

Books 5l£ Bond 182£ Sheep 2£ 6 s. 6 d. 

"Physic powders" 10£ Land 1362£ Best horse 18£ 15 s. 

Military arms 5£ 10 s. Cows 3l£ Other horses 38£ 

Two silver spoons 55 s. Young cattle 13£ 

His will left eighteen hundred and seventy-three 
pounds in all; to his son John, two-thirds of his real 
estate, all his "books of physic" and the office of executor 
of the unsettled estate of his great-grandfather, John 
Rockwood; to his son Joseph, certain real estate and 
"one good Horse beest" etc.; to the BeUingham church, 
five pounds for "Vesels for the Lord's Supper." 



EARLY SETTLERS 49 

Elder Daniel Corbet, his brother, married in 1717, 
Sarah Jones, 1694-1753. When the Congregational Church 
in Bellingham disbanded in 1744, they joined the one 
in Milford instead. He and his brother-in-law, John 
Jones, Jr., exchanged farms with each other in 1749. 
Jones came to his farm of three hundred acres at Belling- 
ham Center, and he took four hundred acres at North 
Purchase in Milford. His inventory showed five hundred 
and sixty-nine pounds in real and two hundred and fifty- 
six pounds in personal property, the latter including a 
negro boy, bed, bedding, axe, and hoe at forty pounds, 
four shillings, five pence. 

The second Dr. John Corbet was born in 1704, 
educated for a doctor like his father, and lived on the 
same estate for ninety years. "A man of ardent feelings 
and uncommon decision of character." In 1740 he 
mortgaged three hundred acres of land to help circulate 
what were called manufacturers' bills of credit, which 
were intended to help farmers sell their products on better 
terms. This was a patriotic deed, for the public need 
was great. 

As a colony, Massachusetts had no right to coin 
money. The French and Indian wars called for large 
public expenditures, and gold and silver became very 
scarce. At one time six hundred and fifty-three thousand 
ounces of Spanish silver and thirty tons of British copper 
coins were imported. The amount of paper in circulation 
reached over two million pounds, and it became worth as 
little as one-eleventh of its face value. Bills of old tenor 
always meant of less value than new ones. This kind of 
money was used for fifty-nine years, and there were many 
attempts at reform. In 1740, three hundred and ninety- 
three men started this one, which was also called the Land 
Bank. Members were to pay cash for one-fifth of one 



50 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

per cent of their stock, and give their notes at three per 
cent for twenty years for the balance, payable in almost 
any of the products of the colony. The governor opposed 
the plan as a fraud, and when the General Court author- 
ized it, he vetoed the bill and discharged all State officials 
who had favored it. Nevertheless the scheme was put 
into operation and bills were issued, but a law of the 
British Parliament forbade such issues the next year. 
Many poor people were indignant at the opposers of the 
bank which was to be such a help to them, and in some 
towns in our county there was talk of a mob assembling to 
march to Boston. Notices were posted on meeting houses 
and a few leaders were arrested, but the uprising never 
took place. Special commissioners were appointed to 
wind up the bank's affairs, and it took nearly thirty years 
to do it. 

The second Dr. Corbet was Town Treasurer in 1739, 
1741, and 1764. 

During the last part of his life he had a difficulty of 
speech and of walking besides; but by using a kind of 
chair on wheels and a well trained horse he was able to 
keep up a large practice, even at his great age. 

Dr. Corbet's daughter Bethiah married Dr. Samuel 
Leslie Scammell, born in 1739, the son of Dr. Samuel Leslie 
Scammell, who came with his brother Alexander from 
Portsmouth in England. They settled here in 1737, and 
the first Dr. Scammell practised here till 1753. His son 
Samuel studied with a doctor in Boston, and then with 
Dr. Corbet, whose daughter he married. He practised 
here from 1760 to 1805, and inherited Dr. Corbet's great 
house near the railroad at South Milford. His brother 
Alexander graduated at Harvard in 1769, and became 
adjutant-general of the American army. He is one of 
the characters in S. W. Mitchell's novel, "Hugh Wynne, 



EARLY SETTLERS 51 

Free Quaker," A third Dr. Scammell was named John, 
born in 1762. He had httle to do as a doctor, for Dr. 
Thurber was considered far above the other physicians. 
The two Corbets and the three Scammells practised here 
for one hundred and twenty-five years. The last Dr. 
Scammell was perhaps more interested in his property 
and business than his profession. His grandson was the 
first settled lawyer in Milford, and he himself carried out 
a plan of his grandfather, the second Dr. John Corbet, 
who asked permission to build a dam for a sawmill on 
his land on Charles River at the Second Bridge. He was 
refused, perhaps because the first mill in Mendon was at 
Mill River less than a mile away or because he would 
need to raise or change the highway for his dam. In 
1812 Dr. Scammell sold to the firm of Penniman, Scam- 
mell & Co., for twelve hundred dollars, land "for a manu- 
factory now building," and this business became the 
"Bellingham woolen and cotton manufactory," incor- 
porated in 1814 with a capital of fifteen thousand dollars. 
The Corbets, and perhaps some of their neighbors, 
kept slaves, and there is a gravestone in a cemetery not 
far away to "Cleopatra, a girl of color aged 16 years." 
In 1819 the town of Milford sued the town of Bellingham 
for the support of Bess Corbett, a negro. She was given 
by Dr. Corbet to his granddaughter, who married Amariah 
Frost, Jr., of Milford. He denied that either he or his 
wife owned her. She was decided to be a citizen of 
Milford. 

Darling 

John and Cornelius Darling were sons of Dennis 
Darling of Braintree. Captain John was born before 
1667 and had three wives and thirteen children. His will 
in 1753 speaks of being "grown antient, " and leaves twelve 



52 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

equal shares to twelve children. Cornelius was born in 
1675. In 1707 he bought of Dr. John Corbet for five 
pounds, twenty acres from the ninety acres bought by 
the doctor's grandfather, John Rockwood, whose estate 
he settled, with twenty-two cow common rights and two 
sheep rights. In 1721 he deeded twenty-four acres to his 
son Cornelius, Jr. The brothers John and Cornelius 
were both weavers as well as farmers. Samuel the third 
signer of the Bellingham petition of this family, was John's 
son. Fifteen Darlings were born in town before 1750, 
and one hundred and fifteen, before 1850. 

Ahimaaz Darling lived in a great house on Lake 
Street, with two immense chimneys built of field stones. 

ZuRiEL Hall 

He was the grandson of William Hall of Newport, 
1639 and Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1644. His son 
with the strange name Zuriel died in 1691 and left a son 
Zuriel, who married in 1697 Hannah Sheffield of Sherborn, 
and he came to Bellingham. He bought of William Jenks 
of Providence in 1714 for one hundred pounds, one hun- 
dred acres with fifty acres more to be laid out in the third 
division. He left a son Zuriel third, 1717-1765. Twenty- 
nine Halls were reported born here before 1800, and only 
two after that. 

Haywards 

The Bellingham petition was signed by four Hay- 
wards: Jonathan, Oliver, William, and Samuel. This 
family was so numerous in Mendon, Milford and Belling- 
ham that it is impossible to be sure of their relationship in 
some cases; three WiUiam Haywards died here within 
twenty years, each leaving a family. 



EARLY SETTLERS 53 

Samuel Hay ward of Swansea bought land in Mendon 
in 1672, and had younger brothers William and Jonathan. 
His son William married in 1708 as his second wife Pris- 
cilla Marsh, widow of Samuel Marsh of Salem, who came 
to Mendon with her son John, born in 1681. In 1700 and 
1701 with Thomas Sanford and Thomas Burch in two 
purchases he bought Rawson's Farm of eighteen hundred 
and forty acres, of which he took half, as has already been 
told. In 1712, "Wm Hay ward of the farms adjacent to 
Mendon" deeded to his son Jonathan, probably the old- 
est, "three score acres," bounded by Thomas Burch, 
Pelatiah Smith and east by Charles River. In 1716 he 
deeded to his son Samuel his homestead of which he had 
given him a third in 1712, near the Country Road, Smith 
land, Stall River and the burying place (North Belling- 
ham cemetery), with other land in the seven hundred 
acres and a lot in the eight hundred acres. He made his 
will in 1712 too, and it was probated in 1718, too early for 
him to sign the Bellingham petition. That was signed 
by two of his sons, Jonathan and Oliver. The will divided 
his personal property equally among five sons and five 
daughters, and mentioned his sawmill probably on Stall 
Brook. The widow was omitted, but she received her 
share. 

The William who signed the petition probably died 
in 1737. His will mentions two sons, Eleazer and Eben- 
ezer, the daughter Sarah and her children and the home- 
stead of one hundred and twenty acres southeast of 
Charles River. She married James Smith in 1728, the 
second son of Pelatiah Smith, senior, who came from 
Bridgewater to Bellingham and bought Thomas Sanford's 
"mansion House" and land for three hundred pounds. 
They named their girl and boy Elizabeth and Hayward. 
This second William, the signer, may have been the son 



54 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

of the third William to leave a will, dated 1729 in Mendon. 
He married Esther Harbor, and left sons named William 
and John, and a grandson Samuel, son of his deceased 
son Samuel. This latter Samuel, in his will dated 1722, 
mentions his son Samuel under twenty-one years of age, 
his wife Hannah, two daughters, one Elizabeth under 
eighteen, and a younger son Caleb. His large estate 
amounted to ten hundred and eighty-two pounds. This 
Samuel sold his son William in 1713 for an annuity of 
four pounds, ten shillings a year, the first homestead lot 
he had in Mendon, an eleven-and-one-half acre right 
there. 

So the four Haywards to sign the petition were two 
pairs of brothers, Jonathan and Oliver, the sons of William 
who bought half of Rawson's Farm, and died in 1718, and 
William and Samuel, probably the sons of William of 
Mendon, who died in 1729. 

In another account of this family, William Hayward 
of Weymouth and Braintree, whose wife was Margery, 
was the father of William who married second Priscilla 
Marsh, and bought Rawson's Farm. They had four 
sons, and these sons were the four signers of our petition. 
Samuel was the favorite, who left the large estate. 

In the North Bellingham cemetery is a stone with 
this inscription: 

"Mrs Mary Relict of Mr Eleazer Hayward Mar 15 
1814 in the hundred & second year of her age." 

Twenty-four Haywards were born in Bellingham by 
1750, and fifty by 1850. 

HOLBROOK 

Peter Holbrook of Mendon deeded to his son John, in 
1706, sixty acres near the east side of Beaver Pond River, 



EARLY SETTLERS 55 

through which land ran the Country Road (Hartford 
Avenue) four rods wide. This John died in 1757, leaving 
a wife Hannah, and five sons and two daughters. He was 
the first town treasurer, and held the oflSce for seven years. 
Three years later he began to be town clerk for the same 
length of time. Two of his brothers were Peter and 
Eliphalet, and these were three of the four Mendon fam- 
ilies set off to Bellingham. In 1712, Peter Holbrook, Sr., 
deeded to his son Peter about seventy acres near the 
Country Road and Beaver Pond River. Eliphalet Hol- 
brook obtained of Silvanus Holbrook in 1716 by exchange 
sixty-five acres on the Country Road and Beaver Pond 
River. He with Jonathan Thomson and Joseph Wight 
received in 1744 the deed from Elnathan Wight of the land 
for the first Baptist church at Crimp ville. In 1767, 
Eliphalet Holbrook, weaver, deeded his homestead on both 
sides of the road from Mendon to Boston to his son 
Eliphalet. He was town clerk for six years at three differ- 
ent times, and treasurer for twelve years in all at five 
different times. He died in 1777 and left eight children. 

The fourth Holbrook to sign the petition was Joseph, 
ancestor of A. H. Holbrook of High Street, who died in 
1750. He was a Baptist, and when Brown University 
was started he rode horseback to New Jersey, though over 
sixty years old, to find a professor for it. 

Aaron Holbrook was town clerk eight years, and 
treasurer nine years; Amos H., clerk three; Eliab, clerk 
two, treasurer two; Eliphalet, clerk six and treasurer 
twelve; John, clerk eight, and treasurer seven; Joseph, 
clerk two, and treasurer one, and Valentine W., treasurer 
two years. 

Twenty-eight Holbrooks were born here before 1750 
and one hundred and ninety before 1850, making this the 
largest family in town. 



56 history of bellingham 

Ingalls 

Edmund Ingalls, the son of Robert and grandson of 
Henry, was born in Lincolnshire, England, and came to 
Salem in 1628. He was one of the six first settlers of Lynn. 
His son John, born in England in 1625, married Elizabeth 
Barrett of Salem, and was a member of the church at 
Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1687. He settled at Rehoboth 
and died there in 1721, called "Old John Ingols." His 
son Edmund married Eunice Luddin there in 1705. In 
1716 he bought from his brother John, of Dedham, one 
hundred and twenty-seven acres in two lots with twenty 
cow commons, bounded on the "Potockett River" (Black- 
stone). In 1720 he bought forty-four acres "between 
Providence, Mendon and Wrentham," with eighteen 
cow commons. These brothers showed some persever- 
ance in settling here after the welcome which the Dedham 
people had given them in 1703: "Upon Information that 
a stranges John Ingules by name is about to settel him 
selfe upon some of the remote lands of our Town the select 
men have this day given out a warrant to the Constable 
to warne him to depart out of this Town & the precincts 
thereof. " He stayed, nevertheless, and was on the asses- 
sors' list in 1705. 

JiLLSON 

James Gelson or Jillson bought one share in the 
Rehoboth North Purchase, made from the Indian Wam- 
sutta, brother of King Philip, which included Attleboro, 
Cumberland, etc., in 1661. He and his wife Mary both 
died in 1712. Their son Nathaniel 1675-1757, Hved in 
Attleboro. The town clerk there wrote his name Jelson. 
He sold his share of his father's estate in 1712, and was 
the first settler in what was later called the Attleboro Gore. 
One day the Indians set his cabin afire when his wife and 



EARLY SETTLERS 67 

two small sons, James and Nathaniel, were at a spring 
where she was washing clothes, but they all escaped. 

In 1714 the Bellingham proprietors laid out to him sev- 
enty-four acres, also in 1718, forty-seven acres "adjoining 
where his house standeth," now supposed to be in Woon- 
socket. In 1730 he bought for forty pounds, forty- 
two acres in Iron Rock Meadow. In 1735 he deeded 
his homestead of sixty acres to his son Nathaniel, Jr., 
and in 1743, nine cow commons to his two sons 
Nathaniel and Uriah. Nathaniel Jillson and his son 
Nathaniel were exempt from the tax for the town church 
in 1738 as Quakers. He died in 1751, and his estate was 
six hundred and eight pounds. Nathaniel, Jr., was a large 
land owner and a member of the Cumberland town coun- 
cil. Both brothers were chosen oflScers at the first town 
meeting there, and Uriah was a Justice of the Peace. 
Seven children of the two brothers were recorded in 
Bellingham from 1729 to 1735. 

John Marsh 

John Marsh at Salem in 1637 married Susanna 
Skelton, the daughter of the first minister there. Her 
sister Elizabeth was the mother of Deacon Thomas 
Sanford, one of the purchasers of Rawson's Farm. Two 
of John's sons, Zachary and Samuel, with their wives had 
the courage to sign a protest in 1691 when John Procter 
and his wife were tried for witchcraft, and testified to 
their good character. Samuel's wife was Priscilla Tomp- 
kins, and after his death she came to Mendon with her 
son John Marsh, born in 1681, where in 1708 she 
married William Hayward. John Marsh married Ab- 
igail Morse and they had six children, between 1716 
and 1726. He bought part of Rawson's Farm from 



58 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Thomas Sanford, his father's first cousin, about 1712, and 
died in 1727. He was the second Town Clerk, chosen 
six times. His estate was six hundred and thirty pounds. 
His son John was a soldier at Crown Point, and his son 
John lived with Indians for seven years, from 1772 to 
1779. 

Eleazar Partridge 

His father John was at Dedham in 1652 and settled 
at Medfield the next year. Indians burned his buildings, 
grain and cattle in 1676. Eleazar was the fourth of ten 
children. He bought in 1720 for two hundred and sixty 
pounds, one hundred and two acres "of wild land" in 
Rawson's Farm, one-twelfth of the seven hundred and 
forty acres, and other tracts, all from Thomas Sanford, 
with the buildings. His wife brought with her from 
Medfield a small homemade chest which I have now, 
with the date 1694 carved upon it. The name Partridge- 
town came from this family, and one of the descendants 
still owns a part of the original land. Eleazar Partridge 
was the third town clerk, and his son Benjamin was 
treasurer four years and schoolmaster. Benjamin's great 
great grandson, George F. Partridge, a graduate of 
Harvard College and a Boston high school teacher, is the 
author of this book. Sixty births of this name were 
recorded to 1850. 

Caleb Phillips 

He was an early settler soon after the incorporation, 
probably the grandson of Deacon Nicholas Phillips of 
Weymouth in 1640, whose third child was named Caleb. 
In 1727 Silvanus Scott sold to Caleb Phillips of Roxbury, 
husbandman, land near Nicholas Cook and Mendon line 
for one hundred and forty-two pounds. In 1762 Caleb 



EARLY SETTLERS 59 

Phillips of Bellingham deeded to his son Caleb eighty 
acres near "the old meeting house," and in the same 
year land to his grandson Caleb third. He and his wife 
Susan had seven children born from 1734 to 1749. He 
was town treasurer for five years. 

Samuel Rich 

He was a carpenter, and bought a part of Rawson's 
Farm from Thomas Sanford in 1702. He signed the 
petition for a new town, but probably he was disappointed 
in not finding more new buildings to work on, for he sold 
his whole purchase to Eleazar Partridge the next year 
and no more is heard of him. 



Deacon Thomas Sanford 

He had sold his land here when the town was formed, 
and probably lived in Mendon then, and yet no one had 
more to do with it than he. He was the son of Robert 
Sanford who was in the First Church of Boston in 1651, 
and sold land on Court Street there in 1678, but went to 
Swansea. He married Elizabeth Skelton, the daughter 
of the first minister of Salem, and the great aunt of John 
Marsh, who bought his Bellingham estate of Thomas 
Sanford in 1712. Thomas was born at Swansea in 1763, 
and was a town officer there at twenty years old, and later, 
town clerk. He was at Mendon in 1700, and bought 
Rawson's Farm with Hayward and Burch as has been 
told in 1700 and 1701. He sold a part of his share of the 
farm in 1702 to John Marsh and Samuel Rich, and the rest 
later for three hundred pounds to Pelatiah Smith, including 
about two hundred acres near Stall Brook "now laid to 
Mendon," his share of a sawmill there, and his "mansion 



60 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

house," which must have been something grand to need 
such a description. He went to hve in Mendon, and was 
chairman of a committee there in 1735, to oppose the 
formation of the East Precinct, which became the town 
of Milford, forty-five years later. 

His wife's first name was Christian, and that rare 
name was given to one of her daughters, who was my 
great great great grandmother. Her sister Bathsheba 
or Bathshua, as they called her, married David Holmes 
of Woodstock, Connecticut. She was a remarkable 
woman and lived to a great age. She did much of the 
work of a country doctor, and in the great snowstorm of 
1717 she left her house by a window and traveled on snow 
shoes with the help of a long pole carried by two men, to 
care for a sick woman in the next town. She was the 
great great grandmother of Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Thomas Sanford's second wife, Tabitha, was mur- 
dered by a negro named Jeffs in Mendon about 1745 or 
1750, who struck her with an axe as she stepped up from 
the kitchen into the main house with a basket of cheeses. 
He hid in a great pine tree and watched the funeral from 
there, the story says, but was caught when he came down. 
He was the first criminal executed in Worcester County, 
and the Mendon doctor kept his skeleton. 

In his old age Thomas Sanford lived with his daugh- 
ters in Medway, where he died in 1764, ninety-one years 
old. The Bellingham records contain the following state- 
ment: "I Thomas Sanford resident in Medway, being now 
in the 87th year of my age, testifie that in the year 1700 
I purchased one quarter and Wm Hayward one half and 
Thomas Burch the other quarter of 800 acres of land of 
Wm Rawson his wife and his sons, being the N E part of 
1840 acres of land lying between Sherborn, Mendon and 
Dedham land, and in the year 1701 I with said Wm 



EARLY SETTLERS 61 

Hayward and Thomas Burch purchased of said Wm 
Rawson 740 acres of land in the aforesaid 1840 acres, 
being westerly of the said first purchase, the two purchases 
containing all the Northeast part of the 1840 acres next 
to Sherborn, as by said deed may more fully appear. 
That I removed on the said first purchase of 800 acres in 
the year 1701, and lived there 14 years." 



1673 — 1764 



Scott 

Joseph and Sylvanus Scott were brothers and came 
from a remarkable family. Their grandfather Richard 
came from England in the ship Griffin in 1631, and another 
passenger was Katherine Marbery, who came with her 
married sister the famous Mrs. Ann Hutchinson. She 
soon dared to criticize the ministers of the Massachusetts 
colony on doctrinal subjects, held religious meetings for 
women and made so much excitement in this way that 
she was banished, and went first to Roger Williams' colony. 
The younger sister Katherine married Richard Scott in 
1637 or 1638, and they settled at Ipswich. In November, 
1634, two men of that town named Scott and Eliot had 
lost their way in the woods and wandered about hungry 
for six days, till they were found at last and brought in by 
a Rhode Island Indian. Governor Winthrop says that 
"the Scotts went to Providence because the wife of one 
of them was affected with Anabaptistry, " and they 
"wanted no Magistrates." 



62 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Here Richard Scott bought the estate of Joshua 
Verrin, a troublesome neighbor of Roger WilHams, who 
forbade his wife to go to church. He had vexed the 
colony for some time, and it was voted in 1637 that he 
"shall be witheld from the libertie of voting till he shall" 
change his course. He went back to Salem where he came 
from, and demanded recompense for the property which 
he had left. Winthrop says in 1638: "At Providence 
things grew still worse; for a sister of Mrs. Hutchinson, 
the wife of one Scott, being infested with Anabaptistry 
and going last year to live at Providence, Mr. Williams 
was taken or rather emboldened by her to make open pro- 
fession thereof and was rebaptized." As Mrs. Scott 
was probably the most influential woman in Providence, 
so her husband became a leader among the men. In 

1650 he was the largest taxpayer there but one. About 

1651 he bought the island of Patience of Roger Williams, 
which he and Governor Winthrop had owned together. 
Scott said of Williams, "I have been his neighbor 
these 38 years. I walked with him in the Baptist 
ways. " 

But he had changed his ways long before then, and 
like Jacob Bartlett's father, his neighbor, had become a 
Quaker, called the first one in Rhode Island. When 
Roger Williams returned from England in triumph with 
a charter for his colony in 1644, which made it free from 
the interference of its persecuting neighbor, Massachu- 
setts, Richard Scott might be expected to rejoice 
with the rest; but his Quaker's hate of ostentation and 
the pride of heart which it expresses, led him to write 
this: "And there he got a charter; and coming from Boston 
to Providence, at Sea-conch the Neighbors of Providence 
met him with fourteen Canoes, and carryed him to Provi- 
dence. And the Man being hemmed in in the middle 



EARLY SETTLERS 63 

of the Canoes, was so Elevated and Transported out of 
himself, that I was condemned in myself that amongst the 
rest I had been an Instrument to set him up in his Pride 
and Folly." 

Some of the members of this new sect became fana- 
tics in their public protests against the ceremonies of 
church and state, and they suffered persecution in various 
countries. In Rehoboth, Massachusetts, a town that 
joined Providence, lived a man named Obadiah Holmes. 
In 1651 he was whipped at Boston with thirty stripes for 
preaching while excommunicated, rebaptizing persons 
who had been baptized, preaching against infant baptism, 
etc. John Hazell, perhaps the first settler at Pawtucket 
on the east side of the river, went to Boston as his friend, 
and was arrested and fined. He was an old man, and 
died before he reached home again. The Scotts heard 
about all these things and the dragon persecution soon 
reached out after them. 

In 1657 Roger Williams, the President of Rhode 
Island, brought "Katherine the wife of Richard Scott" 
and others into court "as common opposers of all au- 
thority," but when neither he nor any one else appeared 
to testify against them, they were acquitted. 

The year before this Christopher Holder and seven 
other Quakers had sailed from England, and he had come 
to Massachusetts and been sent away. Now he appeared 
again at Salem, where he got thirty stripes and was 
expelled. The next year when he came to Boston again, 
he and two other young men had their right ears cut off 
in prison. Katherine Scott's daughter Mary was engaged 
to marry him, and her mother traveled to Boston to 
encourage him in his suffering. An old Quaker book. 
Bishop's "New England Judged," says: 

"Katherine Scott of Providence, a Mother of many 



64 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

children (11), a Grave Sober Ancient Woman and of good 
Breeding, coming to see the Execution of These as afore- 
said, whose ears you cutt off, and saying upon their doing 
it in private, ' That it was evident they were going to act 
the Works of Darkness or else they would have brought 
them forth and declared their Offence, that others may 
hear and fear' .... Ye committed her to prison and gave 
her Ten Cruel Stripes with a threefold corded knotted 
Whip, the 2d day of 8th mo 1658. Though ye knew her 
Father Mr Marbury . . . yet ye whipped her for all that, 
and told her that ye were likely to have a Law to hang her 
if she came thither again. She answered, 'He whom we 
love will make us not to count our Lives dear with our- 
selves for the sake of his Name.' To which your Gov- 
ernor John Endicott replied, 'And we shall be as ready 
to take away your Lives as ye shall be to lay them down. ' 
The next June her little daughter Patience, journeyed 
the forty miles to Boston to make her protest too. Bishop 
says: "Ye apprehended Wm Robinson . , . and Patience 
Scott, daughter of Katherine, (a Girl of about 11 Years 
old, whose Business to youwards from her father's house 
in Providence was. To bear witness against your perse- 
cuting Spirit), and sent them to Prison — (the Child it 
seems was not of Years as to Law, to deal with her by 
Banishment, but otherwise in Understanding, for she 
confounded ye; and some of ye confest that ye had many 
Children, and they had been well Educated, and that it 
were well if they could say half as much for God, as she 
could for the Devil (as ye Blasphemed the Holy Ghost, the 
Spirit of Truth that spoke in her, saying it was an Unclean 
Spirit.) " Another account says that Patience Scott, 
eleven years old, "was moved of the Lord to go to 
Boston (40 miles) to bear witness against the rulers. " 
After an imprisonment of about three months, she 



EARLY SETTLERS 65 

was released, and Secretary Rawson wrote: "The Court 
duly considering the malice of Satan and his instruments, 
by all means and ways to propagate error and disturb 
the truth, and bring in confusion among us, that Satan 
is put to his shifts to make use of such a child, not being 
of the years of discretion, nor understanding the princi- 
ples of religion, judge meet so far to slight her as a 
Quaker, as only to admonish and instruct her accord- 
ing to her capacity and so discharge her; Capt. Hutchinson 
undertaking to send her home. " 

In October the older engaged sister went too : 
"8th of 8th mo 1659. One Mary Scot Daughter to 
Richard & Katherine Scot of Providence aforesaid, who 
came also to visit the said Christopher in prison, whom 
the same constable Apprehended as she was in the Prison 
to Visit her Friend . . . your Governour committed also 
to Prison. 12th of 9tli mo. Rawson your Secretary read 
to them their Sentences, to be whipped in the street. 
Christopher Holder sentenced to Banishment on pain of 
Death. Mary Scot to be delivered to your Governour 
to be admonished. The prisoners were then returned to 
prison for their jailor's fees, till freed by friends who gave 
surety." 

"I have walked Step by Step through your cruel 
Proceedings to see if I could find any Justice. Your 
Declaration is: The Consideration of our gradual Pro- 
ceeding will vindicate us from the Clamorous Accusation 
of Severity, our own Just Defense calling upon us, 
(other Means failing) to offer this Point, which these 
Persons have violently rushed upon; — our former Pro- 
ceedings and the sparing of Mary Dyer — will manifestly 
evidence that we desire their Lives absent, rather than 
their Deaths present. 

Edward Rawson Secret.''^ 



66 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

The Quaker writer had no difficulty in replying to 
this defence. 

Katherine Scott lived a long time after that, and 
died in 1687, five years after her husband. No stone was 
set upon his grave. Both he and his son John fought in 
King Philip's War, and John was badly wounded near 
Pawtucket. 

Richard Scott's grandsons, Joseph born in 1697 and 
Sylvanus, in 1702 came from Pawtucket to Bellingham. 
In 1721 Joseph Scott, son of Sylvanus of Providence, 
"Bloomer," bought one-fourth of a Bloomary Iron Works 
in Mendon on the "Pentucket River at the Great Falls.'* 
He was called a Bloomer because he had made iron from 
the ore near Pawtucket. This foundry was at Woon- 
socket near the land of Nicholas Cook. In 1725 he 
bought another quarter of the same Bloomary, and his 
father's house and one hundred and six acres in Belling- 
ham, bounded north by Zuriel Hall, east by common land 
and the burying place, south by common land and Rich- 
ard Blood and west by Mendon. This was the burying 
place laid out at the proprietors' third meeting in 1717. 
The next year he bought from Banfield Capron ninety- 
seven acres joining his own estate by the road from Bel- 
lingham to Rehoboth. This property he sold for two 
hundred and twenty pounds to Elisha Newell in 1740. 
Later he bought Richard Blood's estate of one hundred 
and seventy-six acres which joined his own on the south 
for twelve hundred pounds. 

In 1727 he and three of his neighbors had occasion to 
remember his grandmother's journey to Boston seventy 
years before. The General Court records show that 
Jacob Bartlett, David Cook, Josiah Cook and Joseph 
Scott in jail in Boston petitioned for release because their 
consciences do not allow them to pay the town tax for 



EARLY SETTLERS 



67 



the support of the minister. The request was refused by 
a vote of the Representatives, but the Council did not 
agree and ordered them released if they gave bond to 
appear at the next meeting of the Court, when the town 
was ordered to present its case against them. That 
meeting was unexpectedly postponed for about a year, 
and there were similar cases in other towns. A thorough 
search at the State House has not shown any further 
record of the case. 

Joseph Scott and his wife Elizabeth had four children 
recorded in Bellingham from 1724 to 1733. He died in 
1742. His inventory mentions: Best suit head to foot, 
eighteen pounds, one sixteenth of a Bloomary, best dwell- 
ing house, two hundred and twenty pounds, another, 
one hundred and ten pounds, land, twenty-nine hundred 
and fourteen pounds; total, forty-three hundred and 
thirty-two pounds, certainly the largest estate in 
town. 

His brother Sylvanus bought one hundred and 
forty- three acres in 1725, bounded by Wrentham line, 
Sergeant Darling and common land. He and his wife 
Mary had five children recorded in Bellingham from 
1726 to 1734. He died in 1777, and left two sons named 
David and John. 

One of the largest stones in the South Bellingham 
cemetery is inscribed: 

"These two died with small pox. In Memory of Mr 
Silvanus Scott who Died April 17 1777 in ye 76th year of 
his age. In Memory of Mrs Joanna wife of Mr Silvanus 
Scott. She died April 20 1777. 

In 1817 Joseph's grandsons Samuel and Saul occu- 
pied his land at Scott Hill, which has been in the same 
family nearly two centuries. Seventy persons of this 
name were born in Bellingham before 1850. 



68 history of bellingham 

Pelatiah Smith 

Pelatiah Smith the first lived in West Bridgewater, 
where he bought land in 1701, but came from there to 
Bellingham. He is the only one of the first settlers to be 
called "Gentleman" in his deeds. In 1714 he bought for 
three hundred pounds of Thomas Sanford "his Mansion 
house" on Rawson's Farm, "now laid to Mendon" with 
nearly a fourth of the eight hundred acres, all of Sanford's 
land that he had not sold to Marsh and Rich, including 
one-fourth of a sawmill on Stall Brook. In 1715 he 
mortgaged these two hundred acres to the Massachusetts 
Commission for issuing fifty thousand pounds of bills of 
credit, for fifty-eight pounds at five per cent. He was 
the first town clerk of Bellingham. He sold land on Stall 
Brook in 1723. His will calls him blacksmith. It left 
all his property to his wife Jane, and his son James refused 
to act as executor with her. He died in 1727, and left 
seven hundred and fifty pounds. His gravestone is in 
the North Bellingham Cemetery, and only eight others 
now there are earlier. 

1657—1727 

Two of his sons signed the Bellingham petition, 
James and Samuel, and two others, Pelatiah and Robert 
may be mentioned. The oldest son Pelatiah, 1659 to 

1757, married Eunice in Bellingham in 1752. They 

had a daughter Margaret born in 1754 and only one son, 
Robert. They were the ones to begin keeping the prin- 
cipal tavern in the town, where stages stopped on their 
way from Boston to Hartford, and changed horses. There 
is a milestone in front of it which says: "31 miles from 



EARLY SETTLERS 69 

Boston R S 1767." His will left only forty-one acres of 
land. 

James Smith was born in 1697 and married Sarah 
Hayward in 1728. He was town clerk in 1728 and 1729. 
He was a blacksmith, and sold land to John Metcalf in 
1742, Daniel Penniman in 1747, and Joseph Rockwood in 
1755. Samuel Smith, the other signer, was born in 1699 
and bought land of his father Pelatiah in 1723 near Stall 
River. The fourth brother Robert was called Captain. 
He hved from 1704 to 1787. 

The third Pelatiah and the last to keep the tavern 
lived from 1806 to 1892, and married Julia Bates. He 
had the south end of the great house set off to him, and 
a driveway to it beside Stall Brook. Three of his sons 
were Whitman, Stephen and Frank. Whitman kept a 
stall in Quincy Market, Boston, and he spent much 
money on the farm where his brothers lived. Their 
father Pelatiah had died in poverty. His house, the 
successor of Thomas Sanford's mansion, and probably the 
largest dwelling house in town, belongs now. to the Bel- 
lingham Woolen Company. The last Pelatiah had a 
brother Robert, whose daughter Amanda Adams was 
ninety-four years old April 29, 1919. She remembers 
hearing that her grandmother went shopping to Boston on 
horseback with chickens in her saddlebags. Fifty Smiths 
were born in Bellingham before 1850. 

Isaac and Ebenezer Thayer 

Their grandfather was Ferdinando, who married 
Huldah Hayward in Braintree and was one of the founders 
of Mendon. His son Isaac married Mercy Rocket or 
Rockwood there. Their son Isaac was born in 1695 and 
Ebenezer in 1697. In 1717 Ebenezer bought of Josiah 



70 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Thayer of Mendon a large tract of land between Mendon 
and Wrentham, Charles River and Attleboro and Paw- 
tucket, and fifty-two acres at the Dedham Tree with 
eight cow commons and two sheep commons. In July 
1719, just before the incorporation, he sold to Robert 
Smith of Roxbury, seventy acres on a branch of Peter's 
River. His will in 1723 also mentions land laid out to 
him in 1715 on Saddleback Hill, and land bought in 1721. 
His homestead was partly in Bellingham and partly in 
Mendon. 

As a Quaker, Jonathan Thayer was exempt from the 
tax for the town church in 1744. 

Isaac Thayer had thirteen children. His estate was 
sold to Oliver Pond in 1765. 

Cornelius, Ellery, Jonathan, and Manning Thayer 
have been town treasurer one year each; Horatio, two 
years; Elias, ten; Francis, eighteen; and his father Ruel, 
twenty-two years. Ruel was town clerk also for four 
years. 

Six Thayer families recorded twenty-five births from 
1721 to 1750, and one hundred and sixty Thayers were 
born before 1850, the second largest family in town in this 
respect. 

Thompson 

Five signers of the Bellingham petition had this name, 
John, his three sons, John, Joseph and Samuel, and Eben- 
ezer. The family was prominent in Mendon from the 
earliest years. John Thompson of Mendon, weaver, 
deeded in 1701 to his oldest son John, land bounded 
on the west by Nicholas Cook. The deed was recorded 
in 1716. In 1721 he deeded to his son Joseph, fifty acres 
on both sides of Beaver Dam Brook. In 1732 he sold 
eighty acres to Dr. Corbet. In 1749 he sold land on the 



EARLY SETTLERS 71 

road from the meeting house to Charles River (at Crimp- 
ville). He died that year and left six sons and three 
daughters. 

Ebenezer Thompson, housewright, bought of Joseph 
Holbrook for two hundred and fifty pounds in 1730 his 
homestead on both sides of the Country Road. 

John Thompson, Sr., was town treasurer one year, 
his son John four years, Jonathan three, and Joseph 
fourteen years. Jonathan was clerk four years and 
Cyrus one year. 

Eight Thompson families had thirty-eight births 
recorded from 1728 to 1744, and one hundred Thompsons 
were born here before 1850. 

Wight 
Joseph Wight, who came to Bellingham in 1729, was 
the grandson of Thomas Wight who was at Watertown 
in 1635 and Dedham in 1637. He and his wife Alice 
moved to Medfield. Their son Samuel married Hannah 
Albee, and his house was burned by Indians. His son 
Joseph was born in 1675, married Mrs. Martha Thayer 
of Bellingham in 1725, and they came here four years later. 
His name with that of his son Elnathan is in the first list 
of the Baptist Church in 1738. In 1741 he sold to Elna- 
than for six hundred pounds, ninety acres in three pieces. 
Sixty acres with the house were bounded by Captain 
Oliver Hayward, Deacon Joseph Holbrook and Dr. John 
Corbet. This son Elnathan deeded to three trustees the 
lot for the first building of the Baptist Church on High 
Street, at Crimp ville in 1744. The site was marked in 
1912 at the one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of 
the founding of the church. Elnathan Wight, 1715 to 
1761, after giving the land studied several years and then 
became its first settled pastor in 1750. The inventory of 



72 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

his estate fills seven pages of the probate records, and 
includes sixty books, most of them separately named and 
valued. It amounts to five hundred and seventy-eight 
pounds, and at the end is written: "And we judge there 
is about a sufficientcy of ye necessaries of life to support 
the family one year not inventoryed. " There were only 
two sons, Nathan and Eliab. The former moved away 
but Eliab lived in Bellingham and was a deacon in the 
Baptist Church. His daughter Abigail lived in Worcester 
from 1817 to 1860, and died one hundred years ten months 
and three days old. There were seven persons in his 
family in 1790. He was town clerk in 1792, 1793 and 
1796 to 1802. His uncle Joseph Wight, Jr., was town 
treasurer in 1753. Forty Wights were born in town by 
1850. 

Nathaniel Weatherby 

In 1717 he deeded land in Dedham to Josiah Thayer 
in exchange for eight acres in Dedham near Mendon. 
He signed the Bellingham petition, but soon disappeared, 
and his deed was not recorded till 1730 on the testimony 
of Thomas and Tabitha Sanford. 



Chapter VI 

THE TOWN CHURCH, 1719-1756 

Bellingham was the last town to be incorporated 
in what is now Norfolk County; it was the farthest 
inland, King Philip's War had delayed settlement, and 
there were two other good reasons. The Dedham com- 
mittee in 1695 reported that the soil was poor, and it 
has been seen that many of the settlers had come here 
with dread and hate of the religious tyranny of the Colony 
of Massachusetts Bay. But their number increased, a 
town government became necessary, and as their land 
fell within the Massachusetts jurisdiction, there was 
nothing else for them to do but to ask the General Court 
for incorporation. The town of Dedham consented 
May 11, 1719: "This day the Inhabitants of this town 
in that track of land lying between Mendon and Wrentham 
presented a petition to this town praying that they may 
be set off from this town in order to a township the town 
have granted it provided they can unite and encorporat 
together with the farms adjacent and some Assistance and 
Inlargement from the towns of Mendon and Wrentham 
so as to capassatate them to manage the affairs of a town 
and have the approbation of the General Court." Like 
all the new towns before them, though a Congregational 
Church to be supported by law was what the Baptists 
and Quakers hated, yet the settlers had to make this 
the main point of their petition: 

73 



74 history of bellingham 

The Bellingham Petition 

To his Exclency Samuel Shute, Esq., Capt. General 
and Governor in Chieff in & over his Majesties Province 
of ye Massachusetts Bay, in New England, & to ye 
Honourable Council & House of Representatives in Gen- 
eral Court convened at Boston. 

The Petition of The Inhabitance of a Tract of Land 
belonging to Dedham, westward of Wrentham, and ye 
Inhabitance of a Considerable Farm adjoyning thereto 
and ye Inhabitance of a small Corner of Mendon ajacent 
Thereto (to ye number of four families) Humbly Shewethe : 

That Whereas ye above Sd Inhabitance are Scituated 
at a Remoat Distance from ye Respective Towns where 
they at present belong: viz. The Inhabitance of the Town 
of Dedham, to ye number of three and 20 Families are 
about Twenty miles Distance from the Town where 
they belong and doe Duty, & being very Remoate from 
ye Public worship of God, & The Inhabitance, to the 
number of thirteen families of ye above Sd Farme being 
Six or Seven miles Distance from ye place of Public 
worship: & ye Inhabitance of Mendon afore Sd being 
about four miles Distance: and Considering our Remoat- 
ness&ye Inconveniancys we Labour under by Reasonof the 
same: and that ye uniting and Incorporating of ye above 
Sd Tracts togeather & making of Them a Town may 
put us in a way in Some Convenient Time to obtain ye 
Settlement of ye Gospel among us &c (the uniting of ye 
Above Sd Tracts of Land Together will make a Town 
of aboute seven Miles Long & three miles & a half wide) 
and Further Considering that ye Inhabitance of ye above 
Sd Tract of Dedham Land & the Farme are already 
Incorporated into a Training Companie and that they 
have little or No Benefit of ye Town Priviledges or having 
No benefit of ye Schools we do Respectively Pay to. 



THE TOWN CHURCH 75 

The whole Number of Families belonging to ye above 
Sd tracte being forty & lands enough already Laid out 
to accommodate 20 or 30 more: The Inhabitance of 
Dedham Land being voated off by ye Town for that end. 

Our Prayer Therefore is that your Honours would 
Graciously plese to consider our Diffeculty Circumstances 
and grant us our petition, which is That ye above Men- 
tioned Tracts of Land (as by one Piatt hereto affixed 
& Described) may be incorporated togeather & made 
a Town & Invested with Town Priveliges. That we 
may be Inabled in Conveniant Time to obtain ye Gospel 
& public worship of God settled, & our Inconveniances 
by Reason of our Remoatness be Removed: granting us 
such Time of Dispence from Public Taxes as in wisdom 
you shall think Conveniant, & in your so doing you will 
greatly oblige us who am your Humble petitioners: and 
for your Honours, as in Consciance we are Bound, Shall 
forever pray. 

Dated ye 17th Day of November 1719 

Richard Blood Zuriel Hall Samll. Smith 

Tho. Burch Jonathan Hayward Ebenezer Thompson 

Nicholas Cook Oliver Hayward John Thompson 

Nicholas Cook Jr Samll. Hayward John Thompson Jr 

Seth Cook William Hayward Joseph Thompson 

Daniel Corbet Joseph Holbrook Samll. Thompson 

Cornelius Darling John Marsh Ebenezer Thayer 

John Darling Samll. Rich Isaac Thayer 

Samll. Darling James Smith Nathaniel Weatherby 
Pelatiah Smith 

The Inhabitance of Mendon 
Eliphalet Holbrook, John Holbrook, Peter Holbrook, John Corbet. 

Thus the heads of thirty-two of the forty families 
signed this petition; perhaps it seems strange that only 
eight refused. Of course these eight received no con- 
sideration in the reply, which as usual contained only 



76 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

one condition, that the new town itself should practically 
become an "orthodox church." 



Answer 

Ordered that the Prayer of the Petitioners be Granted 
& That a Township be Erected & Constituted according 
thereunto & the Piatt above: Provided They Procure 
and Settle a Learned orthodox Minister within the Space 
of three years now coming. 

And That John Darling, John Thompson & John 
Marsh be Impowered to call a Town Meeting any time in 
March next to choose Town Officers & manage ye other 
prudentiall affairs of ye Town. The name of the Town 
to be called Bellingham. 

So the town was formed for the sake of the church, 
and the main story of the town is the story of the church 
for over forty years. The first town meeting was held 
to choose officers, and at the second in 1720 a committee 
was chosen to build the meeting house. 

When it was finished in May, 1722, a committee 
was chosen to get preaching, and the next year Rev. 
Thomas Smith, 1702-1795, was asked to settle here, 
with a salary of sixty pounds and eighty pounds paid 
as a settlement. He was born in Boston, graduated 
at Harvard at eighteen years of age, and was licensed 
to preach at twenty. His diary has been printed and 
it says: "1723 Jan 6 I preached at Bellingham. Jan 7 
The committee of Bellingham was with me to acquaint 
me of their call. Mar 21 I gave Bellingham an answer." 
He declined the invitation on account of his youth and 
inexperience, but continued to preach in different places 
till he found a chance to start a new church in Portland, 
Maine, where he was ordained after four years' preaching 



THE TOWN CHURCH 77 

in 1727. He was the pastor there for sixty years, taking 
his turn in preaching with an assistant during the last 
twenty of them, and his church grew into three or four 
others. 

The BeHingham men kept on trying to get a preacher 
and in 1724 it was voted that "Ohver Hay ward have 
Eleven Pounds and 17 shillings for keeping Ministers 
and their horses. " In 1725 Mr. Robert Sturgeon supplied 
the pulpit, and he agreed to settle here, but was later 
willingly released. He is both the author and the subject 
of a quaint pamphlet published in 1725: "A Trespass 
Offering humbly presented unto the churches of New 
England by Robert Sturgeon." "With a true sense of my 
sins I now acknowledge them ... I bewail my disorders, 
for which a council of churches has rebuked me: receiving 
a private and very irregular ordination, and joining a 
party in Watertown who cast contempt on the General 
Court, and I helped publish a pamphlet slandering the 
churches and Dr. Mather, and this party sent a remon- 
strance to the King." "Boston Apr 17 1725. A council 
called this day considers that he has offered such satis- 
faction as may be required. Cotton Mather, Moderator. " 

The town of Watertown grew very fast in the earliest 
years of the colony, and soon had two churches. A 
committee of the General Court advised the town to 
move both the meeting houses farther apart within a 
definite time to accommodate the enlarging settlement 
better, and the town voted to do it. Most of those who 
supported the second church there objected to the removal 
of their building, which had stood there for twenty-five 
years, and in January, 1722, sixty-three citizens agreed 
to pay Mr. Sturgeon eighty-four pounds a year to preach 
to them there. They were warned by the Selectmen 
against him, a stranger from Ireland who had come to 



78 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

town only a month before from Woburn. They per- 
sisted in defying the Selectmen, the vote of the town and 
the committee of the General Court, till Mr. Sturgeon 
was fined in court for preaching as a "pastor of a pre- 
tended church and disturbing this and other towns." 
After this interesting experience Bellingham voted his 
installation here for October, 1725, but in March the 
town agreed with the church in dismissing him, with 
pay for his firewood, which they had promised, and 
twenty-six shillings to Oliver Hayward for boarding him. 

In November, 1726, Rev. Jonathan Mills, 1703-1773, 
was called and he accepted. He was born in Braintree, 
graduated at Harvard at twenty years of age, and preached 
here for twelve years, the only settled Congregational 
minister the town ever had. The salary offered him 
was seventy-five pounds and four voluntary contribu- 
tions a year, besides a first settlement of eighty pounds, 
with a salary increase of ten pounds when ten more families 
came, and twenty pounds for twenty new families. 

The next year Dr. Corbet in his will left the church 
five pounds to buy vessels for the Lord's Supper, and the 
year after that the town voted that Mr. Mills shall have 
the west pew for his family's use, and that he may cut 
a place for a casement in said pew. So after seven years' 
efforts the town seemed happy with its settled minister, 
but the satisfaction did not last long. 

Forty-eight families were taxed in 1726 when he 
came, but that was the whole strength of the town. 
January 24, 1727, Jacob Bartlett, David Cook, Josiah 
Cook and Joseph Scott in jail in Boston petitioned the 
General Court for release "because their consciences do 
not allow them to pay the town tax for the support of 
the minister." They were released to appear in court the 
next May, but no further record of the case can be found. 



THE TOWN CHURCH 79 

In 1728 a law was passed that Anabaptists and 
Quakers should not be taxed to support the town churches, 
provided they attend their own church and live within 
five miles of it. In 1734 five men were named in the 
town records under this law: "Quakers exempt from 
ministerial taxes and meeting houses and their names 
is as follows." Many other such lists are given. The 
minister's salary was hard to raise, and the town peti- 
tioned the General Court for help towards it. But in 
1732 they voted not to pay Mr. Mills' back salary. 
The next year it was voted to give Mr. Mills ''the money 
due the town from the man that was cared to prison by 
Francis Inman, if he can get it." This generous offer 
was followed a week later by a different vote, to ask the 
General Court to pay Mr. Mills what is due him. In 
1734 the town refused to add five pounds to his salary of 
seventy-five pounds. Even if there were ten new families 
in town, which is probable, it appears that only twenty- 
eight families actually paid towards his support this 
year, and the Quakers and Baptists happened to be 
just the ones who generally had the largest estates. 
There must have been much hard feeling now, for a 
committee of three was chosen "to regulate the 
disturbances in the town among us. " 

In 1735 it was voted that he should have eighty 
pounds, but when this dispute was ended, it was followed 
by another one as bad, over ruling elders. These officers 
are mentioned in the Bible as chosen by a local church 
to have authority over it, and they are the characteristic 
feature of the Presbyterian Church to this day. They 
have no duties that cannot be performed by the minister, 
deacons or united members of the church as well, and 
their authority sometimes became a source of dispute and 
trouble. The churches here never all agreed to choose 



80 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

them, and the oflSce was called obsolete even in 1680. 
Still the nearest Congregational Church to this one, at 
West Medway, chose elders from 1753 to 1768. Mr. 
Mills opposed them as not required by Scripture and as 
an interference with his authority. His church chose 
them against his will and called a council of churches to 
confirm their action, while he and his friends called 
another, to meet on the same day. After several unsuc- 
cessful attempts to unite the two councils, they made 
separate reports, one in favor of Mr. Mills, the other that 
the church rescind its action and try to persuade him 
to join them in choosing elders, but if he again refused 
to disregard him again. Thus no agreement came, 
each party was confirmed in its position, and in 1738 
the town and church united in calling a council to dismiss 
Mr. Mills. This council gave the advice which was 
desired, but it was very small. He denied its authority 
over him and continued to preach. The town chose a 
committee to get another minister, and "to prevent 
any disorders in the meeting house on the Sabbath Day. " 
Four men protested against this vote, and declared 
that only seven men voted for it. He then preached 
in his own house. Finally the majority of the church 
voted him out of their membership, and he moved away 
to Boston. 

In 1739 Mr. Mills sold his homestead with fifty 
acres reserved for the first town minister for six hundred 
and seventy-five pounds, no small sum for that time; 
and the same property was sold for seven hundred pounds 
the next year. 

In 1738 John Metcalf, the first of that family at 
Caryville, brought this letter from the Dedham church: 
"To the Chh of Christ in Bellingham the first Chh of Ct 
in Dedham wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace from God 



THE TOWN CHURCH 81 

the Father, & from our Lord Jesus Christ — Brethren — 

The Glorious God who Appointeth ye Bounds of 
all our Habitations, having disposed of our Beloved 
Brother John Metcalf Jr among yourselves — We do 
upon His Desire, & pursuant to our Ecclesiastical Con- 
stitution, & the Laudable Custom of these Chhs, in order 
to His Incorporating with yourselves, recommend him 
to your holy Fellowship Care & Watch, as One who was 
received into full Communion with Us, & according to a 
judgement of Charity behaved as became ye Gospel 
while with Us, praying you to Receive Him in ye Ld 
as becometh Saints. 

We Commend our Dear Brother to God, & the Word 
of his Grace, who is able to build Him up, & to give 
Him an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified . . . 
We Commend our Sister Ch in Bellingham to ye Pastoral 
Care & Conduct of the Great Shepheard & Bishop of 
Souls, who leadeth Joseph as a Flock . . . and so Asking 
a Remembrance in your prayers We Subscribe 

Your Brethren in ye Faith and Fellowship of ye 
Gospell. 

Saml Dexter Pastor In ye Name & with the Con- 
currence of ye Fraternity Dedham Sep 11 1738." 

Two years before Mr. Mills was sent away, some 
of the leading men of Bellingham had joined another 
church thirty miles away. The Baptist Church of 
Swansea has these records: "This is to certfie that the 
following persons were baptized upon profession of their 
faith, viz William Hayward Nicholas Cook John Thomp- 
son Eleazer Hayward Samuell Hayward Ebenezer Hay- 
ward Joseph Partridge, all inhabitants of Bellingham. 
The last of these persons was baptized Septm 21 1736 and 
all the others some time before, and have had the advice 
of the old church in Swansea, to assemble together on 



82 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

the Lord's Day and do come Down to Swansey as often 
as they can attend it to communicate with the church, 
and as often as they can procure a minister to preach 
to them, they are careful to do it. Attested by me Samuel 
Maxwell Minister Jonathan Kingsley Deacon Swansea 
Jan 13 1736-7." 

"Oct 6 1737 Att a church meeting of the old church 
in Swansey the Desire of the Brethren Dwelling in Bell- 
ingham to form themselves into a Church State was 
communicated to the Church by their Elder which motion 
of theirs was approved of: Witness my hand Samuel 
Maxwell." 

When this "Desire of the Brethren Dwelling in 
Bellingham" was realized a month later, there was no 
hope left for the town church. In 1739 a Mr. Hunt 
was offered a salary of one hundred pounds, but he 
declined it. Occasional preaching was obtained, but 
no minister was settled. "June 24 1743 We the ante- 
pedoBaptist Church in Bellingham upon the Desier of 
the pedobaptist Church in the same Town concerning 
your settelling a minister you say you are not able to 
maintain a minister yourselves without wee will Come 
in and Joine with you. Wee are willing to joine with 
you so far that is by subscription." On Mr. Mills' 
complaint, in 1743, the town was fined for this neglect. 
For three or four years beginning in 1739 the town voted 
repeatedly on the question of moving the meeting house 
to the north side of Charles River, probably to secure 
its use by the Baptists, but without effect. 

Both the church and its building grew feeble together. 
"1747 Put to vote whether Walsingham Chilson be 
employed in mending the Glass windows of the meeting 
house naling Bords over the glass as much as he shall 
think is needful. Passed." Finally in 1747 the town 



THE TOWN CHURCH 



83 



petitioned tlie General Court to be freed from the duties 
of a religious parish "on account of the great & uncom- 
mon difficulties attending their religious affairs & espe- 
cially the support of the ministry by reason of the many 
Sectaries among them and small number & poverty of 
the remainder." The northeast part of the town was 
included in the West Parish of Medway, incorporated 
the next year, and this petition was now granted. All 
support of worship in Bellingham since this time has been 
voluntary. 

The inhabitants of Bellingham who petitioned the 
General Court in January, 1747, to be set off to other 
precincts in ecclesiastical affairs were these: 



To Mendon 

I Precinct 
Thomas Baxter 
Samuel Darling 
Seth Hall 
John Holbrook 
Peter Holbrook 
Caleb Phillips 
Ebenezer Thomson 
John Thomson 



To Mendon 

II Precinct 
John Corbet 
Benjamin Partridge 
Ebenezer Thaj'er 



To Medway, 
West Parish 

Obadiah Adams jr 

Enoch Hill 

Joseph Holbrook jr 

John Metcalf 

Daniel Penniman 

Robert Smith 



To Wreniham, West Precinct 

[Franklin) 
Joseph Blood 
Joseph Chilson 
Walsingham Chilson 
Elizabeth Hayward, widdow 
Asahcl Holbrook 
Joseph Holbrook 
John Jones 
Caleb Phillips jr 
Cornelias Thayer 
Isaac Thayer 



*'Mar 2 1747 In Council. Ordered that these persons 
be annexed as desired." 

The petition for the new West Parish in Medway 
was in part as follows: 



84 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

"Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. 

"To His Excellency William Shirley Esq Captain 
General and Governor &c The Hon. Council and House 
of Representatives in General Court Assembled at Boston 
Feb 28 1747-8. 

"The Petition of the Subscribers a Committee in 
behalf of themselves & the others whose Names are 
afterwritten to the Number of Forty nine all inhabitants 
of the Adjoining Towns of Medway Holliston Bellingham 
& the westerly precinct of Wrentham. 

"Humbly Showeth That Your Petitioners have for 
a long time conflicted with great hardships and difliculties 
in attending on the Public Worship of God by reason 
of the extraordinary Distances our habitations are from 
the meeting houses in our respective Towns and precinct: 
That it is almost impossible for us with our large Families 
. . . that we are able by the Blessing of heaven to settle 
and support the Gospel among ourselves; . . . That we 
have applied to the Towns and precinct to which we respec- 
tively belong to be made a Distinct Precinct by Ourselves 
unsuccessfully except in Bellingham, That Town having 
petitioned the General Court that the Inhabitants might 
be annexed to the Towns they severally congregate 
with, and an Act was passed for this purpose; That the 
Inhabitants of the West precinct of Wrentham are an 
able people . . . of about 100 families, and we ask for only 
9; That the Inhabitants of Holliston are about 90 
families; That the Inhabitants of Medway are good 
livers and more families than any of the other towns 
have. The Bounds to contain 49 families; in Medway 
31, in Bellingham 10, in Wrentham 9, in Holliston 9. 
The center of which is 5 miles from any meeting, and 
very few families above 2 miles from ours proposed." 

Signed by a committee of four and forty-five others. 



THE TOWN CHURCH 85 

A few months later Samuel Darling, Caleb Phillips, 
Jr., and John Corbet with Benjamin Partridge and Hugh 
Boyd petitioned the General Court that the new precinct 
should not be granted, hoping for a minister of their 
own, "We are in hope that in time we shall be able 
to settle and support a minister in our said Town by 
reason yt we have Considerable of Land which is not 
Improved which is likely to be settled in a little time 
by our Children or others Coming and settling among 
us." But in view of the town church's hard struggle 
for life for nearly thirty years, the cheerful confidence 
of these men was not shared by the General Court; the 
new West Parish of Med way was incorporated, and the 
town of Bellingham was no longer obliged to support a 
church of its own. 

The West Parish Church was actually organized 
in 1750 with thirty-four male members, and our town 
has had a share in its history ever since. Its first pastor 
came in 1752, Rev. David Thurston, a graduate of 
Princeton College, who remained nearly seventeen years. 
On account of poor health and some disagreement in 
regard to revivals he then resigned and bought a farm. 
Seventy-nine persons joined the church in his time. His 
successor was Rev. David Sanford, a graduate of Yale. 
After beginning to study theology he gave it up and settled 
down as a farmer, but as a result of a quarrel with his 
brother-in-law, a minister who showed a truly Christian 
spirit under Mr. Sanford's aggravations, he began his 
studies again and became a preacher. He served the 
West Parish from 1773 to 1807. When some of the 
church members disliked certain of his theological views 
and began to neglect church attendance, they received 
a vote of censure, and then asked to have the censure 
removed in order to request letters of dismissal to another 



86 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

church. When this was refused, they appHed to the 
First Church of Medway, now at MilHs, for admission 
there, and were accepted. For this unfriendly act the 
Second Church refused fellowship with the First, and 
they remained estranged for thirty-two years. After 
the death of the persons concerned, Mr. Sanford saw 
the division healed. He was an army chaplain in the 
Revolutionary War, a leader in public affairs in the 
exciting years that followed it, a man of fine appearance 
with sharp eyes and a strong, clear voice and eminent 
as a preacher. 

The third and most notable pastor was Jacob Ide, 
of Brown University. He was ordained here when the 
present church was built, in 1814, a young man in delicate 
health," but filled his position for fifty-one years. He 
had eight sons and three daughters, and lived to be 
ninety-five years old. His ninetieth birthday celebration 
in 1875 was a memorable occasion. Great simplicity 
of character and sound common sense were his character- 
istics. He was a leader in his profession, and trained 
forty-three young ministers in his own house. He edited 
the "Christian Magazine," and published the life and 
works of his father-in-law, Nathaniel Emmons of Frank- 
lin, the most eminent theologian of New England in his 
day. 

Dr. Emmons was born in Haddam, Conn., the last 
of twelve children. He graduated at Yale, and was 
ordained at Franklin, in 1773, where he preached for 
fifty-four years, till he was eighty-two years old. After 
a sudden sickness he at once resigned his office, and though 
he seemed to recover all his strength, he refused to take 
up his work again, saying that he meant to retire while 
he had sense enough to do it. He lived to the age of 
ninety-six. He was an early leader in anti-slavery and 



THE TOWN CHURCH 87 

temperance reform, and advocated foreign missions 
ten years before they were begun. He founded the 
Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, and was its 
president for twelve years. He published seven volumes 
of sermons, and trained eighty-six ministers. When 
he made a parish call, which happened in every house 
about once a year, it was no small event, and all the 
family were summoned to hear him. Both he and Dr. Ide 
had an influence and an authority in all this region that 
can hardly be realized today, in our divided town as well 
as its neighbors. 

Since Dr. Ide the pastors have been: 

186.5-1872 Stephen Knowlton 1886-1889 Augustus H. Fuller 

1873-1875 S. W. Segur 1889-1894 William Carr 

1876-1885 J. M. Bell 1894-1898 John F. Crosby 

1899-1901 George E. Sweet 

1902-1914 George R. Hewitt 

1914- Henry F. Burdon 

The church of the West Parish was the Second 
Church of Medway. The Third Congregational Church, 
composed of disaffected members of the Second, was 
organized as a result of disagreement on the discipline 
of C. H. Deans, a lawyer, in 1886. It held its meetings 
in the old Parish House, now the building of the Medway 
Historical Society, till 1891, when the two churches 
united again. 

The town church of Bellingham continued a feeble 
life without support by law till 1756, when it disbanded. 
Even after that sermons were preached occasionally 
in the old building till 1774, when it was sold at auction. 
One of the last preachers was Rev. Solomon Prentice, 
who was the first settled minister at Grafton in 1731. 
He invited the great preacher, Whitefield, to his pulpit, 
and after some disagreement, he left that church in 1747. 



88 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

In 1764 a petition of the inhabitants of BelHngham, 
ignoring the Baptist Church there, stated that they had 
had no minister for twenty years, when some families had 
been set off to the West Parish, leaving about forty fam- 
ilies destitute, who were unable to support a minister; 
and prayed that these families now be restored. The 
clerk of the West Parish was ordered served with a notice 
to reply to this petition at the next session of the court. 
The Parish chose a committee to make their reply, of 
whom Stephen Metcalf was one, and it was successful, 
for the petition was refused. 

The following letter describes the end of the town 
church in Bellingham; an attempted revival of it from 
1824 to 1826 will be related later in Chapter VIII. 

"To Mr Caleb Phillips for the Church of Christ 
in Bellingham, met Dec 10 1755. Beloved Brethren 
it is with Grief that I am necessarily absent from you 
but hereby send my mind viz. That I don't think it 
proper to dissolve until we have disposed of the church 
utensils and I think it would be proper to divide them, 
(there now remaining but 8 male members) at least 
into two equal parts if not into four, and deliver my part 
to Brother John Holbrook and all the rest as you may 
agree. 

"As soon as that is done I should think proper by 
vote to dismiss & recommend each to the neighboring 
churches they desire in the usual manner, and me to the 
ch. in the Precinct in which I live, called the 2nd Precinct 
in Medway. 

Your unworthy brother, 

John Metcalf Moderator." 

The utensils were divided January 6, 1756. 



Chapter VII 
TOWN AFFAIRS 1719-1747 

The oldest record book of the town belonged to the 
proprietors of the land itself, and it extends from 1714 
to 1813. The clerks who kept it were Thomas Sanford 
for eleven years, John Marsh, three, Joseph Holbrook, 
twenty- two, Joseph Chilson, twenty-eight, to 1750, and 
others. In 1812 it was voted to sell the remaining com- 
mon land and divide the proceeds. 

The first of the eight volumes of records of the town's 
business begins with eighteen pages of such entries as these : 
"1724 The marks natural and artificial of a mare colt of 
James Smith coming three years old of a redish Roan 
Coller with a white face and four white feet Branded thus 
B-I. " "1733 Taken up in BeHingham Damage feasant 
(doing) and strayed by Jonathan Thayer a lite bay hors 
Branded with figure 9 with two white feet behinde a Belt 
and Bell about his necke. " "1742 Joseph Chilson Ear- 
mark for His Criters is 'a ( out of the top of the left ear. ' " 

Besides the lists of oflBcers chosen, the records of 
meetings contain these votes most frequently: Settling 
with the town treasurer, debtors and creditors. To 
choose committees "to reckon with the treasurer." To 
instruct the assessors. "They may have 10s for making 
rats" (rates or taxes). To "sink" certain men's taxes. 
"Swine to go at large this year." Laying out roads. 
Perambulating the town's boundary lines. Warning 
people out of town who were liable to become paupers. 

89 



90 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Notices of newcomers "in comfortable state of wealth." 
Anabaptists exempt from the tax for the minister. "For 
going after ministers. " 

The first town meeting was held March 2, 1720 at the 
house of "Ensign John Thompson." Pelatiah Smith 
was moderator, and was chosen town clerk, and John 
Holbrook treasurer. The first selectmen were "Lt. 
John Darlin, " Pelatiah Smith, John Thompson, Nathaniel 
Jillson and John Corbett. They chose also constables, 
surveyors, tithing men, fence viewers and field drivers for 
the cattle. It was voted to choose officers annually on 
the first Wednesday in March, and a committee was 
chosen to consider a place for the meeting house. At 
another meeting in the same month a committee to build 
the house was chosen, and a narrow ax man was to have 
two shillings, six pence and a broad ax man, three shillings 
a day. There were five meetings this first year. 

Next year the town voted to build two pounds for 
stray cattle, to cost forty shillings each. A meeting was 
held the same year to choose a "Deputy" (for the General 
Court) "but not judging ourselves qualified, desired to be 
excused. " This vote was repeated for many years. The 
town sometimes paid the smallest state tax in the county. 

1721 "It passed by a voat that ye Meeting House 
should be larthed and plastered with white lime there 
should be an alley of four feet wide through the body and 
between the ends of the Seats and the outside. " This 
house, near the corner of Blackstone and South Main 
Streets, stood till 1774. It was the center and the dividing 
point of the town, for one constable notified all inhabitants 
south of the meeting house of the town meetings, and 
another those who lived north of it. 1723 Voted to give 
the minister a day's work a man to get his firewood. 
1726 "Voted that John Holbrook be Impowered to take 



TOWN AFFAIRS 1719-1747 91 

care of the youth in this town to prevent them from pro- 
phaning the Sabbath. " 

This year forty-eight famihes were taxed, and just 
half of the men named were signers of the petition seven 
years before: 

Signers Others 

Richard Blood El iphalet Holbrook Jacob Bartlett Francis Inman ' 

Thomas Burch John " Banfield Capron Nathaniel Jillson 

Nicholas Cook Joseph " Josiah Cook Eleazer Partridge 

Nicholas Cook jr Peter " Daniel Corbett John Rockwood 

John Corbett John Marsh Jonathan Cutler Joseph Scott 

Cornelius Darling Pelatiah Smith David Daniels Silvanus " 

Capt John Darling Ebenezer Thayer Cornelius Darling Robert Staples 

Samuel Darling Isaac Thayer David " Samuel " 

Zuriel Hall EbenezerThompsonEbenezer " Thomas " 

Jonathan Hayward John " Richard " Benjamin Thompson 

Oliver Hayward John jr " Henry Hill Ebenezer " 

William Hayward Joseph " Edward Hunt Jonathan " 

In 1727 the town of Wrentham proposed to run its 
western boundary Hne a little northwest instead of north, 
taking away three hundred acres from our town. The 
line had been fixed in 1661 and had caused many disputes. 
In 1730 Bellingham voted to petition the General Court 
for aid if it lost so many inhabitants. The line was finally 
left running north. A part of Mendon east of Mill River 
proposed to join this town at this time, but for some un- 
known reason it was not wanted. 

In 1737 is this entertaining vote: "to see what ye 
town will do about hogs whether they will let them run 
at larg or shet them up and also to see what the town will 
do about the rats which are in the hand of Joseph Thomp- 
son constable which he cant get. Voted that they be 
sunk." The clerk disposed of the "rats" but forgot the 
hogs. 

February 6, 1739 three of the five selectmen issued 
the warrant for the annual town meeting, "on Wed Mar 7 
at 9 A M to choose Town officers to serve the King & the 



92 



HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 



Town, and to see if the said Town will shut up their Hogs 
or Let them run at Large being Yoaked & Ringed as the 
law Directs, and make return" etc. John Metcalf, town 
clerk, certified that this meeting was held, and that John 
Corbet was chosen moderator, and John Holbrook, 
Samuel Darling, Daniel Corbet, Joseph Corbet and John 
Corbet, selectmen. 

The next April a petition against this meeting went to 
the General Court, which declared that the said three 
selectmen signed the warrant without the other two, and 
"with 8 or 9 others entered on the business of the annual 
meeting without regulating it according to the good laws 
of this Province, as was there and then urged on them." 
About twenty men remonstrated and requested the select- 
men to annul the elections made "through Just Resent- 
ment of the Imposition on them, the like to which we have 
too often borne with too much Patience on such occa- 
sions. — We do now petition you for the redress of our 
insufferable Grieviance aforementioned, the like to which 
we have suffered from Time to Time by our former fre- 
quent disordered Town Meetings. " 



Richard Aldi ich 




.Jonathan Draper 




Silvanus Scott 


Q 


Jacob Bartlet 


Q 


Ebcnezer liaywaid 


B 


Jonathan Scott 




Joseph Bnrtlct 


Q 


Elezcr Ilayward 




James Smith 




Ichabod IJozworlh 




Oliver i I ay ward 




Robert Smith 




Banfit-ld Capion 




Samuel I-ayward 


B 


Daniel Thayer 




John Chilson 




Thomas Higgins 




Isaac Thayer 




Walsingham Cliilson 




Eliphalet Holbrook 


B 


John Thomson 


B 


Caleb Collum 




Francis Inman 




Jonathan Thomson 


B 


David Cook 


B 


Uriah Jillson 


Q 


Peter Thomson 


B 


Josiah Cook 


B 


Joseph Partridge 


Q 


Elnathan Wight 


B 


Nicholas Cook 


B 


Joseph Scott 


B 


Joseph Wight jr 


B 


Richard Darling 













The letters B and Q designate those known to be 
Baptists and Quakers. 

"Deposition of Robert Smith, Ebenezer Hay ward 
and Samuel Hayward, June 4, 1739. 



TOWN AFFAIRS 1719-1747 93 

Being att our Meeting House in Bellingham on ye 
first Wednesday in March last att ye usual time of day for 
our Annuall Meeting and when we came thereupon or 
aboute, ten or eleven of the town had chosen the Chiefe 
Officers and we with about 18 more desired the Moderator 
to Resede from what they had done and begin their meet- 
ing anew or appoint another, for their assembling them- 
selves aboute three hours sooner than ever we knew them 
to do on Said Day. And a grate number of the town 
was never warned to attend, as they then declared to the 
Moderator and Selectmen, which they made Lighte of 
and with a seeming Laftuer told us we might Do as we 
pleased whereupon we tolde them that we shoulde make 
our application whare we Doubted not but yt we shoulde 
be heerde and so withdrew from them." 

Answer of the three selectmen and the town clerk to 
the petition of Oliver Hayward, Joseph Scott and others 
complaining of the manner of calling the town meeting 
and its proceedings. The three selectmen called the 
meeting because the other two live far remote and take no 
manner of care whether a warrant issues or not, so that 
three are accustomed to do it. "This warrant was Red 
in a public Town Meeting by a constable a month before 
March 7." It was voted in 1720 to meet the first 
Wednesday in March, and it has always been done since 
then. This meeting began an hour and a half later than 
the set time. 

Of the petitioners only twenty-four are voters, and 
most of them claim exemption from ministerial taxes. 
"Scarce three of them have been three times to meeting in 
our Public Meeting house for a Twelve months Past on 
lords dales, Oliver Hayward in particular. That these 
Malecontents Will & do Invade the Rights & Privilidges 
of those that are qualified to vote in ministerial affairs, 



94 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

witness the last year when they sunk many Pounds min- 
isterial money regularly Granted & leveyed Taking advan- 
tage of one of themselves moderator of Town meeting and 
another of them Town clerk (Eliphalet Holbrook) from 
whom a copy of such proceedure can not be obtained tho 
requested with the Tender of Reasonable Fees. So that 
their complaints are only taking the advantage of their 
own Rong. " 

We therefore pray you to dismiss the Petition. 

"Notes. Joseph Scott one of the Two Selectmen 
who neglected Issuing the warrant for the March meeting 
& one of the above petitioners (as the other three Select- 
men are credably informed) having obtained the Procla- 
mation for the last General Fast of this Province kept & 
concealed it from those that meet at the usual place of 
Public Meeting in sd Town & from ye minister that their 
preached, & made games or mock at it, That he and many 
others of the sd Petitioners, as usual followed their Servile 
Labours, as before on such Dales in Derison & comtempt 
of Athority. 

John Holbrook, Samuel Darling, John Corbet, 
Selectmen, and John Corbet, Moderator." 

This answer was successful, for the General Court 
dismissed the petition in June, 1739. 

The Assessors' list of qualified voters March 5, 1739, 
contained just fifty names. 

Richard Aldrich Cornelius Darling jr John Holbrook 

Joshua Andrews John Darling Joseph Holbrook 

Jacob Bartlet Richard Darling Peter Holbrook 

Jacob Bartlet jr Samuel Darling Thomas Higgins 

Daniel Corbit Jonathan Draper Francis Inman 

John Corbet Eleazer Hayward Nathl Jilson 

David Cook Oliver Hayward Nathl Jilson jr 

Josiah Cook Samuel Hayward Uriah Jilson 

Nicholas Cook Seth Hall Caleb Mackallum 

Banfield Capron Zuriel Hall John Metcalf 

Ebenezer Darling Eliphalet Holbrook Joseph Partridge 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1719-1747 



95 



Caleb Phillips 
Caleb Phillips jr 
Joseph Scott 
Salvenus Scott 
James Smith 
Robert Smith 



Ebem" Thomson 
John Thomson jr 
Jonathan Thomson 
Joseph Thomson 
Peter Thomson 
Daniel Thayer 



Ebenr Thayer 
Isaac Thayer jr 
Jonathan Thayer jr 
Joseph Wight 
Elnathan Wight 



The object for which the town uses the most money 
in these days did not appear at all in the records of the 
first eighteen years. In 1737 it was first voted to have a 
free school, to be kept for six months in all at five different 
houses: two months with Ebenezer Hay ward at North 
Bellingham, one with Jonathan Thompson, near Crimp- 
ville, three weeks with Joseph Scott on Scott Hill, one 
month with Samuel Darling near Bald Hill and the 
Wrentham line, and five weeks with Nathaniel Jillson in 
what is now Woonsocket, near Border Grange Hall. 
Eighty pounds was voted for the town church and forty 
pounds for all other expenses this year. The first school 
seems to have been no great success, for it was voted down 
the next two years, renewed in 1740, and omitted the next 
three years, but supported after that. 

In 1739 it was voted to move the meeting house fur- 
ther north to some spot near Charles River within three 
years, provided the General Court added to Bellingham 
apparently that part of Mendon which had been refused 
in 1730. 

In 1742 on May 8, thirteen Mendon men agreed to 
join in a petition to the General Court to be set off to 
Bellingham if the people of that town would move their 
meeting house "to the north side of Second Bridge River 
(Charles) upon the Knowl by the Road which Leeds from 
the said meeting house to the Country Road (Hartford 
Turnpike) by the house of John Marsh. " As Bellingham 
had already voted to do this in 1739, and repeated the 
vote this year, this rather clumsy petition was drawn up 



96 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

May 26 and signed by John Holbrook, Joseph Holbrook 
and John Corbet of Bellingham for that town, and by nine 
men of Mendon: 

"Humbly Sheweth That since the first Incorporating 
of the Town of BelHngham into a Township whereby they 
became Liable & Obliged by the Laws of the Province to 
Settle & Support a Gospel Ministry as by law prescribed, 
A very great number of the Inhabitants being of Opinion 
(in matters relating to the Settlement & Support of 
Ministers different from the Methods prescribed in the 
Law & fixed by the Acts of this Hon Ble Court, from all 
Rates or Taxes relating to such Settlement & Support) 
there are now very little more than Thirty families in 
Said Town, on whom the charge of the Settling & main- 
tenance of a Minister can by Law be fixed, which most 
be An heavy charge on So Small a Number, may it please 
Your Excellency & Hours they are willing as far as Able 
to forward the Settlemt of the Gospel & Ordinances but 
Labour under great discouragements through their Weak- 
ness and Inability to go through the necessary charge 
thereof . . . And May It please this Honble Court Some 
Inhabitants of the Town of Mendon hereunto Subscrib- 
ers . , , who are situated partly on a Gore of Land lying 
between the northerly end of Bellingham & the easterly 
Precinct of Mendon and part on the westerly side of Belling- 
ham . . . are Desirous to be Incorporated with Said 
Town of Bellingham, and to join with them in Settling & 
supporting a Learned & Orthodox Ministry. " 

This petition reached the Court June 8, and the 
answer of Mendon came in September. First, there 
is no Gore, for the east precinct of Mendon, which became 
Milford in 1780, bounds on Bellingham, Hopkinton and 
Holliston. Second, "The Town of Mendon was clipd 
many years agoe to favour the Town of Bellingham. " 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1719-1747 97 

when just incorporated. Then Uxbridge was set off, 
then Upton, and last year the east precinct was incor- 
porated, which has already called a minister, though no 
church is yet built, and no part of its strength can be 
spared. Third, the west precinct is the First Church of 
Mendon, now weakened by losing the new east precinct 
and by the Anabaptists and Quakers, exempt from min- 
isterial support, who own a quarter of the property there. 
Fourth, the land asked for is near three thousand acres, 
and has about twenty-four families, many of whom are 
unwilling. Fifth, the change would be likely to require 
the removal of our meeting house, lately built. This 
answer was approved, and the petition was denied. 

In this same year of discouragement the town voted 
to support no minister and no school. Next year the 
school was to be kept in four places and cost thirty pounds, 
and preaching was to receive only voluntary contribu- 
tions. 

About 1740 the town lost the south part of its terri- 
tory, as much as paid a third of all its taxes, John Metcalf 
wrote forty-five years later. This was the result that 
had been feared for a long time. As long ago as in 1707 
armed men in Mendon seized two citizens of Providence 
and took them to Boston as intruders who claimed "half 
of Mendon's land." They were released, and after much 
negotiation and many postponements two committees of 
the two colonies met at Wrentham in 1719 and spent two 
days in running the south line of Massachusetts. The 
matter seemed to be settled in the same year that our 
town was formed, but it was not. John Metcalf wrote 
that the people in the south part of our town found that 
their Rhode Island neighbors paid only half as much in 
taxes as they, and sent a petition to the Rhode Island 
legislature to join them to that colony. Massachusetts 



98 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

declined the Rhode Island offer to accomplish this change, 
and so the Rhode Island men ran a line of their own. The 
Massachusetts authorities refused to reduce the tax levied 
on this town in proportion to this loss for ten years, hoping 
to have it finally annulled, but they did accept a propor- 
tional part of the tax each year and excused the rest. 
Rhode Island declared that the corner stake set up by 
Massachusetts in 1642 and agreed to by Connecticut and 
Rhode Island was over four miles too far south, and 
deprived Rhode Island of a strip of land of that width 
and twenty-two miles long The oldest charters made 
Massachusetts reach three miles south of Charles River, a 
distance which the Rhode Island men seemed to measure 
from Populatic Pond instead of the southern point of the 
river in Bellingham. A Rhode Island map of 1750 shows 
the south line of Bellingham about four miles north of 
where it is now, and such a change as that, from its pre- 
vious extent to the Blackstone River, including what is 
now East Woonsocket, might easily take away a third 
of the Bellingham taxes. This loss on the south of that 
line was in part only temporary, but there was another 
smaller loss on the east about the same time, in the town of 
Cumberland. 

The east line of Rhode Island was run exactly north 
from Pawtucket Falls to the Massachusetts line in 1747 
by the order of the King of England, taking away from 
Massachusetts, Cumberland and other towns with forty- 
eight hundred people. Our town had to suffer a long 
time from this confusion and uncertainty of boundary 
lines, besides its own internal weakness from the unlucky 
division in religious matters. Although the town is now 
eight miles long, a proposed petition to the General Court 
as late as 1773, called its length only five or six miles. 

In 1744 it was voted to form seven school districts to 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1719-1747 99 

include the fifty families, eight to send to Samuel Hay- 
ward's house, eight to John Holbrook's, five to Isaac 
Thayer's, seven to Joseph Wight's, six to Jonathan 
Thayer's, nine to Widow Scott's, and seven to Samuel 
Darling's. The assessors divided the money appropri- 
ated among the districts, and this plan was followed for 
more than twenty-five years, though not every district 
had a school every year. In 1772 the fourth and fifth 
districts were united "for the furter. " The first school 
house was not built till 1790. 

This first chapter of the town's history ends with 
1747, when the West Parish of Med way was incorporated 
to include the families of North Bellingham and Caryville, 
and there was no longer an established town church. The 
Baptist Church took its place so completely in men's 
minds that seventy-seven years later the Supreme Court 
of the State had to decide after a long trial that it did 
not actually own the town house. 



Chapter VIII 
THE BAPTIST CHURCH 1736-1819 

Some of the citizens of Rehoboth refused to support 
their town church as early as 1649, and in 1663 John 
Myles, a travelHng preacher, commissioned by Cromwell 
and named for punishment at the Restoration of the King, 
came from Wales and started there the fourth Baptist 
Church in America. They were fined five pounds each 
and warned away; these men formed the new town of 
Swansea and the nearest Baptist Church to our town, 
where eight Bellingham men were baptized by 1736. 

In 1737, they with seven others, not all of Belling- 
ham, subscribed a church covenant at Mendon, and the 
next February, "at the house of one of them in Belling- 
ham," they chose Nicholas Cook a deacon and "a man 
to keep the church book and enter church notes. " These 
fifteen men were: 

Nicholas Cook EHphalet Holljrook Jonatlian Thompson 

Benjamin Force Joseph Partridge Peter Thompson 

Ebenezer Ilayward Edward Pickering Sam;iel Thomnson 

Eleazer Kay ward Eleazer Taft Ehial han Wight 

Samuel Ilayward John Thompson Joseph Wight 

They formed the fourth Baptist Church in Massa- 
chusetts. For several years they had no meeting house 
and only occasional preaching, but their ideas were 
spreading all the time. In 1740 there were twenty-one 
Baptist Churches in New England, eleven of them in 
Rhode Island. The first record in the Bellingham church 

100 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 101 

book appears in 1742: "The Anabaptist Church pro- 
ceeded in order to chooes a man amongst us to call a 
church meeting and to order and to Rule as a head among 
us. " Some one like a ruling elder would be needed where 
there was no settled pastor. They also chose "two 
Princibel men" to certify to the assessors the list of their 
members who would be exempt from taxes for the town 
church. In the same year the pastor of the First Baptist 
Church of Boston was present here and baptized five 
persons, and seven more the next year. 

In 1744 one of their members, Ehiathan Wight, 
gave the land for a church by the following deed : 

"I Elnathan Wight of Bellingham in his Majesty's 
Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England Yeoman 
for Divers good Causes & Valuable Considerations, and 
for five Shillings paid by Jonathan Thompson, Eliphalet 
Holbrook and Joseph Wight all of Bellingham Yeomen, 
have granted unto them as Feoffees in Trust, land . . . 
near the road to the Second Bridge River, to the Public use, 
benefit and behoof of that Church or Society of Baptized 
Believers whereunto the said Elnathan Wight and the 
others do now stand related as members, for and so long 
a time as the said church shall hold to and walk in the 
faith which they now possess . . . but in case they Apos- 
tatize and decline from the said Faith and Practice or in 
case of Annihilation, then the said land hereby Granted to 
Revert and Remain to the only proper use, benefit and 
behoof of the next & right heir of the said Elnathan Wight 
. . . Feb 22 1744." 

The church was built thirty by thirty-five feet, with 
nineteen foot posts, and the raising took place March 20, 
1744. Pews were built, but the building was never fully 
completed as planned. It was used for fifty years by 
the church, and often by the town for its meetings, during 



102 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

the last years of its existence. The site of this meeting 
house, at Crimpville, the second one built in this town, was 
marked with a boulder with an inscription in November, 
1912, on the one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of 
the signing of the covenant by the fifteen first members. 

The little company still had years to wait for a 
settled minister, even after their house was built. One of 
their own number, Elnathan Wight, who had given the 
land for it, finally became their first pastor. At twenty- 
three years of age he had joined the new Baptist Church 
with his father. In 1745 he began to keep a diary, which 
he continued nearly ten years. This record shows that 
he had had thoughts of becoming a preacher long before. 
It was so common for uneducated men to preach in the 
small and poor Baptist churches of that time, that only 
two of their ministers were college graduates in 1755. 
Even with so many examples to the contrary, Mr. Wight 
considered a thorough education necessary, and with 
modest self-distrust and some discouragements, he studied 
more than three years with the minister of Southboro, 
Massachusetts. In 1749 when he wished to be licensed to 
preach, he was refused by the Congregational ministers 
who knew him, as he was a Baptist. They advised him 
to go to New Jersey to find ministers of his sect there, and 
he began that journey, but for some reason gave it up, 
and soon received his license from Congregational min- 
isters after all. They gave it finally because he did not 
consider that his views of baptism required him not to 
commune with them. In this view he differed from almost 
all the Baptists of his time. He was a liberal man, and 
the idea of close communion was distasteful to him. 

Even after receiving his license, for a time he feared 
to begin to preach, but the ordeal was passed on March 4, 
1750, "with his composure and satisfaction." 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 103 

"The Baptist Church Leagully Assembled together at 
the House of Peter Thomson in BelHngham and Put to 
Votes whether the Church will chooes two men to go and 
Discours with Mr Elnathan Wight for one month's preach- 
ing upon Liking or Approbation. Voted that Eliphalet 
Holbrook and Eliezer Hay ward bee the two men and the 
said Holbrook and Hayward went to Mr Wight and Dis- 
courst with Mr Wight and Mr Wight Consented thereto. " 

The desired approbation was obtained, the church 
called him to be its pastor, and he accepted the call in 
August. 

They adopted a very lengthy covenant in October, in 
part as follows. Some of the names signed were written 
long after 1750; twelve men and one woman signed then. 

"The Articles of Faith and Church Discipline, which 
we ... do profess, . . . are contained in a Printed 
Declaration put forth by the Baptist Churches in Eng- 
land . . . and we do agree to be Governed by the Sacred 
Scriptures Principally, & by said Confession Subordin- 
ately. . . . 

Moreover we have concluded ... to record the fol- 
lowing Church Covenant: 

THE CHURCH COVENANT, as foloweth, 

We whose names are hereafter written, Vizt some that it 
hath pleased GOD through the riches of his grace to call 
out of Darkness into his Marvellous Light, & to Reveal 
his Son in us, and having shewn unto us our Duty & 
privilege as believers, not only to Separate from the 
World but also to Congregate & Embody ourselves into 
a Church State, ... & being brought in some blessed 
measure into Oneness of Spirit, being baptized by One 
Spirit into One Body, and being agreed in the Great and 
Sublime Truths of the Gospel, We do therefore in the 



104 



HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 



Name and fear of the Lord, Give up Ourselves unto the 
LORD, and to One Another by the Will of GOD, to Walk 
together as a Church of Christ in the fellowship of the 
Gospel, ... & as the Lord shall please to help us We will 
frequently Assemble Ourselves together as a Church of 
Christ, to attend upon Our Lord in the Service of his 
house, especially every LORD'S Day, . . . And as We 
shall be under the conduct of JEHOVAH, We will keep the 
doors of GOD'S house or church open always to Believers 
in Christ, . . . And as Our God will help us. We will keep 
them always shut against visible LTnbelievers and profli- 
gate persons, . . . And now as a testimony of our belief 
and of Our holy resolution in the strength of Grace, to 
stand and Walk together in the fellowship of the Gospel, 
. . . We call not only Heaven and Earth to Witness, but 
We also subscribe the same with Our hands . . . 



Names of the Brethren 
EInathan Wight 
Eliphelet Ilolhrook 
Joseph Wight 
Eleazar Taft 
Jonathan Thomson 
Peter Thomson* 
Elezer Hayward 
Samuel Hayward* 
Ebenezer Hayward 
Samuel Darling: juner 
John Thomson* 
Aaron Thayer 
Silas Wheelock 
Jonathan Wheelock 
Josiah Partridge 
Isaiah Blood 



Aaron Perry 
Nathan Man 
Noah Alden Elder 
Elhanan Winchester junr 



Names of the Sisters 
Martha Wheelock 
Abigail Blood 
Joanna Alden 
Martha Wight 
Catherine Clark 
Lucy Alden 
Hannah Haven 
Betty Bixby 
Abigail Partridge 
Abigail Holbrook 
Jemima Thomson 
Hanna Wheelock 
Ruth Alden 



There were so few Baptist Churches in Massachu- 
setts that Mr. Wight tried to get a council of Congrega- 
tional churches to ordain him. Three different dates were 
set, and one of them was adjourned twice, but in vain. 
He would be glad to practice fellowship with them, but 



THE BAPTIST CHUECH, 1736-1819 105 

they were unwilling. Adin Ballon says of his letter to 
the Milford church: "This invitation from an intelligent 
and exemplary Christian man, liberal for his times, was a 
puzzle to the church, but the ruling elders declined it." 
Finally he applied to his own denomination, and the Bap- 
tist Church of Brimfield and the Second of Boston sent 
delegates to a council at Bellingham in 1755. A memento 
of this memorable occasion is a printed sermon, entitled, 
"Ministers ambassadors for Christ. A Sermon preached 
at Bellingham Jan 15 1755 by Elnathan Wight, then 
ordained pastor of a church of Christ there. To which is 
added a summary confession of faith, agreed to by the 
church under his watch and care. Boston New England 
1755." The introduction is: "In speaking to this doc- 
trine I shall observe the following method, I. I shall 
endeavour to shew that the true ministers of the gospel 
are ambassadors for Christ. II To shew some of the 
necessary qualifications of these ambassadors. Ill That 
they are sent forth by Christ to perswade sinners to be 
reconciled to God. IV To shew what means they should 
use to obtain the end for which they are sent, which is to 
gain souls to Christ, or to perswade sinners to be recon- 
ciled to God. V and lastly endeavour some suitable 
improvement (application) upon the whole. " 

The church grew slowly but steadily. More than 
three of its attendants were arrested for not supporting 
their parish churches. In 1753 Eleazer Adams of Med- 
way, sixty-six years old, who had come regularly to the 
Bellingham church for years, was imprisoned in Boston. 
John Jones and Jesse Holbrook of Bellingham, who had 
been assigned to the west precinct of Wrentham (Franklin 
now), but had not attended there for two years, were 
summoned by the Wrentham collector. On April 23 he 
started to take them to the "common goald, " and they 



106 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

were on the road "near 24 hours." Sometimes he rode 
ahead of them, sometimes behind. When they had not 
seen him for an hour, they supposed themselves free, and 
returned home. But he appeared again with the same 
demand for the tax, they absolutely refused to pay it, 
and that is the end of the story as told in a letter signed 
by two of the Bellingham Baptists of May 4, 1753. 

Many protests at such treatment were made in many 
towns, and at a general meeting of Baptists in Bellingham 
an agent was chosen to go to England to appeal to the 
King, and one hundred pounds subscribed for the purpose. 
The Revolution was approaching, and he never went, but 
the proposed memorial was presented to the General 
Court here instead. It was endorsed, "Read and as it 
contains indecent reflections on the Laws and Legislature, 
it is dismissed. " Their agent appealed again, disclaiming 
any intent of improper criticism, and the case was again 
dismissed. 

In 1757 vessels for the Lord's Supper were bought for 
the Bellingham church with a small legacy from Peter 
Thompson. 

A history of the early Baptist churches calls Mr. 
Wight "a pious and useful man." His salary was forty 
or fifty pounds a year, but he was comfortably off 
without it. He filled his office faithfully till his early 
death in 1761. His people afterwards practised close 
communion like regular Baptists. Mr. Wight married in 
1754 the widow Abigail Blood, and had one daughter and 
two sons, Nathan and Eliab. His widow married Nathan 
Mann of Franklin, who brought them up. Nathan went 
to New York State, but Eliab remained on the homestead, 
and became a deacon in his father's church. 

Several persons in town have some of Mr. Wight's 
original sermons. They are neatly written and very 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 107 

logical and systematic in form. The inventory of his 
estate, amounting to fifty-seven pounds, mentions about 
sixty books, including a Greek Testament and a Latin 
Bible. The gravestone of our first Baptist minister and 
his wife is in the North Bellingham cemetery, and has 
this inscription: 

While you are standing here to read 
Prepare for Death with care & speed 
For sure it is that you must die 
And hasten to Eternity. 
Prepare for Death he often said 
Who in tliis silent Grave is laid. 

1715 — 1761 

For five years after Mr. Wight's death the church 
had no pastor. 

"Oct 28 1762 the Baptist Church in Belhnghara 
Regularly met together and voted to send Ebenezer 
Holbrook up to the Jersey to see if said Holbrook can git 
a minister to be with us to Preach the Gospel with us in 
Bellingham." Mr. James Mellen was called, but he 
declined, and the second pastor was Noah Alden, the 
great grandson of John Alden, the Pilgrim of Plymouth. 
The Pilgrim's grandson, John of Middleboro, had thirteen 
children, of whom Noah was the youngest. John's will 
in 1730 disposed of a large estate of twenty-eight hundred 
and ninety-three pounds, and it says: "And my will is 
that my son Noah be brought up in learning at the col- 
ledge. " The little boy was then five years old, and his 
mother died only two years later. His father's liberal 
plan was not realized, for with both parents gone the 
property disappeared too, and he could not go to college. 



108 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

He was fond of study, and said he would rather have the 
expected education than his father's house full of silver 
and gold, but he had to leave school and live with a 
brother-in-law and then with other relatives. When 
fourteen years old he chose a guardian with whom he lived 
two years, but thinking himself abused, he left him and 
shifted for himself. 

As young as eighteen years old he thought of becom- 
ing a preacher, but he gave it up, for his lack of education 
and of friends to advise him, and he married at twenty. 
Both he and his wife joined the Congregational Church at 
Middleboro. At twenty-four he moved to Stafford, 
Connecticut, and bought a farm, and four years later he 
became a Baptist. His quickened interest in religion 
revived his feeling that it was his duty to preach, and he 
was ordained there in 1755 at thirty years of age, where 
he preached for ten years, till the people were unable to 
support him. After a stay at another small town, he 
came to Bellingham in 1766, where he ended his days. 
The church promised such support as they could give, but 
no definite amount. The Congregational party in town 
probably had some hope of their own revival, as their 
petition in 1764 suggests, and were rather jealous of the 
Baptists. They are said to have begun a violent oppo- 
sition to Mr. Alden at first, but he overcame it entirely, 
and became highly respected as the first citizen of the 
town in public affairs. 

In 1767 an association of Baptist churches in New 
England was formed, but they were so afraid of the 
tyranny of authority that only four churches joined it, 
of which this was one. The others were at Haverhill, 
Middleborough and Warren, Rhode Island. Each one 
was a center for a considerable region, and the pastors at 
Middleborough and Bellingham were their leaders in a 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 109 

long struggle for religious freedom. Benedict's " History 
of the Baptists " says: "Bellingham was for many years the 
favorite resort of the few Baptist ministers in the country." 
The members of a Baptist church in Boston were not 
taxed to support any other, and the people of the other 
towns wanted the same right. 

"Mar 24 1774 Voted First we do believe the apostels 
did not alow the Sisters To examine or ask questions 
publicly in the church of those that are come to joyne the 
Church Neither to be called upon by the Church to know 
whether they Are Satisfied with them that are received 
by the Church Seconly We believe that Elder Noah Alden 
holding that gospel invitashions were not to be aplied to 
sinners in the carricter of sinners as such is agreable to 
the form of sound words and not corrupt as has Ben 
alidged. " 

In 1773 Elhanan Winchester 1751-1787 joined the 
Bellingham Church. He was the son of a farmer of 
Brookline, the oldest of fifteen children, a youthful prod- 
igy at books. He married at nineteen and joined the 
Congregational Church, but soon after he was immersed 
and joined a "New Light " Baptist Church at Canterbury, 
Connecticut. The next spring he began to preach with 
great success, and started a church of that belief at 
Rehoboth, with about seventy members. Within a year 
he changed his view to close communion, and his own 
church excluded him. Then he came to Mr. Alden and 
joined this church. A council met to ordain him, but 
they were not satisfied in regard to his theological views, 
and refused to do it. He met with success as a traveling 
preacher, however, and was settled for some time in South 
Carolina. Later, while settled in Philadelphia, he became 
a Universalist, and no preacher of that denomination ever 
had a greater reputation. He preached in England six 



110 HISTORY or BELLINGHAM 

years, and even in France, and ended his life in Hartford. 
Connecticut. One library has about thirty sermons and 
other books of his. 

The next year after Mr. Winchester, another famous 
preacher joined this church, John Leland, 1754-1841. 
He was born at Grafton of Congregational parents, and 
had only a common school education. When he was 
twenty-one years old his father's house contained only three 
books, the Bible, "Pilgrim's Progress," and Doddridge's 
"Religion in the Soul." He was baptized with seven others 
at Northbridge by Mr. Alden. One day he was present 
at a meeting where the expected preacher did not appear, 
and he found himself talking freely for a half hour. He 
then began to preach where he was invited. Within a 
year after joining the Bellingham church he was licensed 
to preach, and served poor churches in Virginia and 
neighboring states, which could not support a settled 
pastor. He traveled as far north as Philadelphia, and 
in 1788 he baptized three hundred persons. 

When the new constitution for the United States was 
to be voted on, he was the candidate of those opposed to 
it in his county in Virginia, and his opponent was the 
future President Madison. Madison explained the case 
to him so satisfactorily that he announced publicly that 
he should vote himself for Madison at that election. The 
decision was very uncertain, and if Virginia had voted No, 
the constitution would have been lost, and the new nation 
would have been in great peril at the very start. A eulo- 
gist of Madison wrote that a Baptist minister named 
Leland deserved the credit of saving the constitution. 

Mr. Leland baptized seven hundred persons in Vir- 
ginia, and in 1791 he returned to Massachusetts to live. 
Like many of the Baptist preachers who opposed the 
State Church of Massachusetts, he was a Democrat in 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 111 

politics, and in 1801 he carried a cheese of one thousand 
four hundred fifty pounds, made of one day's milk in his 
town of Cheshire, Massachusetts, to President Jefferson 
"as a peppercorn of their esteem" for the new President, 
and he preached along the journey both ways. 

Most Baptist churches were too small and poor to 
own buildings, and their preachers had to use school- 
houses, taverns, and dwelling houses. A Congregation- 
alist once declared to a Baptist that John Leland could not 
preach so well unless he committed his sermons to memory 
beforehand, and offered him the use of a Congregational 
building if he would use a text given him on the spot. 
The offer was accepted, and when he read the text aloud 
in the pulpit it was: "And Balaam saddled his ass." He 
remarked that it could hardly have been more appropri- 
ate: Balaam the unrighteous prophet represented the 
oppressive Congregational Church, the ass the patient 
endurers of its oppression, the Baptists, and the saddle 
the unjust exaction of taxes from the oppressed denom- 
inations. The sermon was a great Baptist success. 

The Governor of Massachusetts visited Mr. Leland 
when he was eighty-five years old and his wife eighty- three, 
and they lived happily by themselves. All their thirteen 
children had other homes, and there had not yet been a 
death in the family. He was a man of tall, commanding 
figure, with many eccentricities, widely known for his 
shrewdness and his great interest in politics. He out- 
grew his inclination for doctrinal controversy after his 
early years of preaching, but he liked to tell how when the 
town minister came to his house to baptize him in his 
early childhood, he ran away, fell down, and got a bloody 
nose, but the hired girl caught him, and he had to submit. 
He remarked that little saints generally offered all the 
resistance in their power to this Congregational sacrament. 



112 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

In 1782 the Bellingham church bought a ten-acre wood 
lot for the use of the minister with money given partly 
by legacies of Eleazer Hayward and Brother Hill of 
Sherborn. 

In 1785 the church was joined by Aaron Leland, 1761 
to 1833, in a time of revival, and he was soon after licensed 
to preach. He was called to serve a few people at Chester, 
Vermont, and after a short visit there, he returned to 
Bellingham to be ordained, and then settled in his new 
home. With nine other persons he formed the Baptist 
Church there in 1789, which grew fast, especially in a 
revival in 1799. In 1803 four other churches Were set off 
from this one, reducing its members from two hundred and 
fifty-three to seventy-nine, and he started others in the 
territory near by. He had only a common-school educa- 
tion, and always worked without a fixed salary. Besides 
preaching, he served in the legislature, as speaker, coun- 
cillor, and lieutenant-governor, for twenty-one years in 
all; in 1828 he declined a nomination for governor, not 
considering the office compatible with his profession as a 
preacher. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat. 

Mr. Alden's labors reached beyond his own church 
and town. He preached abundantly to vacant congre- 
gations, and where neighborhoods invited him. He was 
a member of the Massachusetts convention to form the 
Constitution, and was the leader of the friends of religious 
liberty in that body. He was also one of the convention 
to ratify the new Constitution of the United States. He 
preached till late in 1796, even after a stroke of paralysis, 
and died the next year. He was a short man, and grew 
fat in later life. He was friendly and sociable with every 
one in town. His family contained eleven children, but 
some of them died young. 

The hard times after the Revolution caused great dis- 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 113 

tress, and something new appeared in country towns like 
this, namely beggars. The story is told that Mr. Alden 
met a "shack" one day, and gave him only a penny. 
When he threw it on the ground in anger, the minister 
showed him a silver dollar which he had been ready to 
give, but he did not then add it to the penny. 



eAK^ 




Though the church always had some members in 
other towns, its whole number was never large. The 
greatest membership at one time was fifty-eight, about 
1783. Ninety-three persons had been baptized by 1797, 
sixty-seven of them by Mr. Alden. His salary was 
usually thirty pounds or thirty-six pounds a year. 

After his death the pulpit was supplied by Mr. 
IMoffit, and then by Valentine W. Rathbun. When 
he had served six months, the male members were just 
equally divided in regard to him. Two or three councils 
were called, but they were unable to unite the people. 
He accepted a call to Bridgewater, and his opponents 
kept up independent religious services for a while in 
private houses. His supporters never acted as a church 
after his departure, but the Baptist Society provided 
occasional preaching in the old church. In this town 
as in others, the Baptist Religious Society was joined 
by those who were willing to support Baptist worship, 
whether members of that church or not. Sometimes 
Congregationalists belonged to it to protest against the 
state-supported church, and here when that church 
came to an end, many wished to maintain Baptist preach- 
ing in the town rather than none. The Baptist Society 



114 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

therefore was much larger than the church. With about 
forty-eight members the church seemed to die out in 1799. 

One reason for this dechne was the uncertain relation 
between the church and the town. In 1797 the town 
was asked to repair the Baptist meeting house, which 
it had used regularly for town meetings, but it voted 
not to do it and not to build another. Yet the next 
year it voted to call Mr. Rathbun for one year, to be 
supported by voluntary contributions. In 1799 a town 
committee on building a new meeting house reported, 
"It would be inexpedient to build a house for public 
worship," but as they "are not possessed of any building 
answerable to their dignity and suitable to assemble 
in from time to time, having for so many years used a 
house for public occasions barely by permission, we are 
therefore unanimously of opinion that it is the duty of 
the Town in support of their dignity and for their own 
accommodation and benefit to erect a building suitable 
to transact the public concerns in. A house which these 
circumstances will both admit and require will cost 
$1000." The site of the present town hall was recom- 
mended, and the Baptist Society might be allowed to 
assist in the work, but not to increase the town's 
investment beyond $1000. 

At the annual town meeting of 1800 Laban Bates, 
Elisha Burr, John Chilson, Samuel Darhng, Jr., Joseph 
Fairbanks, Seth Holbrook, Simeon Holbrook, Stephen 
Metcalf, Jr., John Scammell and Eliab Wight agreed to 
build such a town house forty-five by fifty feet, with 
twenty-five foot posts and a porch fourteen feet square, if 
the town would pay them $500 in April, 1801, and $500 in 
April, 1802, and grant them the right to sell pews in it 
for the use of the Religious Society, meaning the Baptist 
Society. These men were mostly Baptists, but probably 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 115 

not all. Eliab Wight advised Mr. Jones not to give the 
proposed land, because the majority might some time 
favor a different sect, but others of them were ready to 
build first and then vote the town's money for any preach- 
ing which the majority desired. Mr. Wight is also 
quoted as saying at this time: "We can have such 
preaching as we like; the house don't belong to any 
society; it belongs to the town." In September, 1802, 
the town voted to ask Dr. Thomas Baldwin, 1753-1825, 
of Boston to preach the dedication sermon, and to state 
to him that the building was not intended for use by 
only one denomination, as the sermon itself showed. 
He had been a travelling Baptist preacher in New Hamp- 
shire till 1790, when he came to Boston, where he became 
the leader of his denomination in the country. He 
edited the American Baptist Magazine till his death, 
and published many sermons and religious books. His 
dedication sermon here was printed and it contains the 
words: "These doors shall be cheerfully opened to the 
faithful ministers of the gospel of different denominations." 

The ten builders paid the expenses of the dedication 
and proceeded to sell the pews at auction. They were 
all bought by Baptists, though any one else had a right 
to bid. The building was accepted by the town in 
December, 1802. 

It was voted to procure Baptist preaching, and that 
any inhabitant who is a pew owner may invite a minister 
of good character to preach there, with the consent of 
the selectmen or the town's supply committee at the 
time, and that the selectmen should keep the key. The 
next year thirty men voted to raise $200 for preaching 
for one year and eighteen were opposed, but at the next 
meeting this vote was rescinded by thirty-six votes to 
twenty-four. 



116 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Nathaniel Kendrick, 1777-1848, preached here about 
this time for nearly two years. He began to teach school 
and attend an academy at twenty years of age. He 
studied the question of baptism nine months before he 
decided to be immersed, in 1798. He then studied 
theology with several ministers, one of them Dr. Emmons 
of Franklin. He was licensed to preach at twenty-six, 
and began his work here. He received $4 and then $5 
a week, and was invited to settle here at a salary of $260. 
He served several other small churches in New York 
State and Vermont. His mind worked slowly and his 
sermons were long and heavy, very strict in doctrine. 
He said that Dr. Emmons told him that a man who 
preached less than half an hour had better not have 
gone into the pulpit at all, and he who preached more 
than an hour had better never come out of it. In 1822 
he became a professor of theology at Colgate University, 
Hamilton, New York, where he spent the rest of 
his life. He declined the presidency of it, saying that 
the only reason for his choice must have been that 
mentioned for Saul, because he was six feet three inches tall. 

In 1805 the town voted to collect $100 for preaching 
and in 1806 $300, and to admit an organ, and to ask Mr. 
William Gammel, 1786-1827, to remain as preacher. He 
was born in Boston, and baptized in the First Baptist 
Church there in 1805. He studied with Mr. WiUiams of 
Wrentham, and so naturally supplied the pulpit here for 
about two years, but some persons disliked him greatly 
a.nd in 1807 the town voted his dismissal when his time 
was up. He was ordained here in 1809 and went to 
Medfield, where he preached till 1823, when he went to 
Newport. He was a trustee of Brown University, and 
his son became a prominent professor there. 

After Mr. Gammel's time there was no regular 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819 117 

preacher for a few years, but in 1811 the Baptist Society 
was incorporated by the Legislature with seventy-seven 
members, and the church was reorganized the next year 
by a council. It started now with twenty-four members. 
They recalled their former pastor Mr. Rathbun, who had 
spent twelve years successfully at Bridge water, where 
ninety-six persons had joined his church. But his work 
here was destined to be short; he met with a fatal accident 
within a year. He was a modest and peaceful man, who 
kept his self-control in very trying times. 

After a year's interval Stephen S. Nelson, 1772-1853, 
was the next pastor in 1814 for one year. His first set- 
tlement was at Hartford, Connecticut, where he was the 
only educated Baptist minister in the state, and a leader 
for religious liberty. It was 1818 before all sects became 
alike before the law there. From 1801 to 1804 he was 
principal of an academy at Sing Sing, N. Y. "When it 
declined on account of the war with England, he came to 
Attleboro, a revival sprang up, and over one hundred and 
fifty persons joined his church. He then preached in 
Bellingham and other towns a few years, but moved to 
Amherst for the education of his children, and preached 
there to small churches as he found opportunity. Eleven 
persons were baptized by him here, there was unusual 
religious interest, and he was urged to stay, but refused. 

In 1816 Rev. Abial Fisher came to this church, who 
led in the long legal contest for the town house, and built 
the present Baptist meeting house. He was born in 
Putney, Vt., in 1787, and graduated at Burlington Uni- 
versity at the age of twenty-five. He studied theology 
under Nathaniel Kendrick, who had preached in Belling- 
ham in 1808, and this was his first church. His stormy 
pastorate of thirteen years falls mainly in the town's 
second century, and is related in Chapter XI. 



Chapter IX 
TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 

In 1747 school was to be kept for ten pounds at only 
*' three housen." 

In 1754 of two thousand seven hundred thirty-five 
slaves in Massachusetts, Bellingham had only two, one 
man and one woman, both of whom belonged to Dr. 
Corbett. 

A military order of this year is as follows: "To 
Obadiah Adams Corl. these are to Require you Forth- 
with to warn all ye training Compain South of ye old 
Meeting House under my Command to meet at ye new 
meeting House in Bellingham on ye Six day of november 
next at eight of ye Clock in ye morning completely pro- 
vided with arms as ye Law Directs. 

"And make Return of your warrant with your doing 
hereon unto myself at or before ye time of meeting. Dated 
at Bellingham aforesd October ye 26 1754. 

"Ebenezer Thayer, Captain." 

In the same year our neighbors on the north suffered 
from a strange sickness, of which no careful description 
or explanation has been found. In Medway between 
January 9 and February 9, 1754, nineteen persons died, 
and in the little town of Holliston between December 18 
and January 30 there were fifty-three deaths. The 
distress was so great that the General Court voted twenty- 
six pounds, thirteen shillings, four pence to the Selectmen 

118 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 119 

"for the use and relief of such poor Indigent persons as 
may most Need the Same." There were no deaths in 
Belhngham at this time. 

In 1755 it was voted not to assess those men that 
went first into his Majesty's service this year, but to 
assess those who went last. "N B further voted to stand 
by the assessors in assessing those who went last." 

In 1756 the General Court received a petition from 
this town praying to be freed from its fine for not sending 
a representative, (which it had never done yet) by reason 
of its small number of inliabitants "by so many of their 
men going on the expedition to Crown Point." It was 
granted ten pounds to pay the fine. Elnathan Wight's 
diary says: "Sep 30 1755 Lieutenant Peter Thomson 
died returning from the army from Crown Point by Lake 
George." 

In 1758 the town meeting adjourned for two hours 
"by reason of a lecture preached to the soldiers by their 
desire." 

Here is a war letter from another of the Thomson 
family: "Schenectady July the 4 1758 Loveing brother 
these few lines to you and I would inform you that I am 
in a considerable good estate of helth at the preasant 
and I hope that you are so to and I would inform you 
that we had a very hard journey a coming throw the 
woods and I remember my duty to my mother and my 
love to all my friends and Aaron Holbrook is considerable 
well and we have very good pork and peas and we have 
sum rice and sum butter and we have had sum poor 
bread but now we have flour &c and I would inform you 
that one or more of our men in this rigement has got 
small Pox and we do expect to march from hear in a few 
days and then go to the great Carrin Place to Bild forts 
all most up to Oswago and no more for the present so 



120 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

I remane your Loving Brother Peter Thomson To Mr 
Joseph Thomson of Belhngham in nawengland." 

A year later another Thomson letter came to Belhng- 
ham: "Fort Cumberland Aug ye 29 1759 I have a short 
time to Right for the vesel that we ware a going in had 
got a ground and were forst to stay for the tide we Are 
a going to a french town abought thurty milds of to take 
it the Leters that I had I received them the 9 of this 
month two of them from you and one from Samuel 
Daniels and I have had one from him since from halifax 
I begin to think about hom but I am content yet I here 
that the narers (Narrows) are taken and our Esterd 
(Eastern) armies are in prospect of doing something. 
I should be glad to have another Leter if I could but 
Lay up sum aples for me that I may eat one bely full I 
here that Aron Holbrook has good fortin and has drawed 
fifty dolers and I am a going to git sum to if they do 
not git my skelp for the want of time I must wind of 
no more at present. 

"Remember your friend Daniel Thomson Take good 
care of my things I hope to com hom this this fall but we 
are not quit sertin of it." 

In 1758 the town of Holliston reminded the General 
Court that two years before a Nova Scotia family of 
refugees of eight persons was ordered to be supported 
half by Holliston and half by Bellingham, but the kindly 
sheriff brought them all to Holliston to avoid separating 
them. The town of Bellingham was now ordered there- 
fore to receive them all and provide for their comfortable 
support. Three pounds seven shillings was voted for 
them in 1762 under the name of the family of James 
Merow. 

In early years the school was kept by citizens of the 
town, and the first one to be named is Michael Metcalf in 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 121 

1760. His successor in 1765 and other years was Benjamin 
Partridge. 

In 1762 the bad condition of the old meeting house 
caused a vote for a committee of men from other towns 
to recommend a central spot for a new one. The pros- 
pect of disagreement made this no small matter, and 
five pounds was voted for the committee's expenses, 
but the old one and then the house of the Baptists was 
used for just forty years longer, till the present town 
house was built. The next year it was voted "that the 
Knowl over Charles River on the right hand a going to 
Dr. Corbett's house on this side of the Baptist meeting 
house be a stated place for this Town if they se cause to 
build a meeting house on." 

In 1764 Benjamin Partridge, the schoolmaster, got 
his pay for five years' services as town treasurer; it was 
fifteen shillings. This is written in one of his books: 

-' d 

His son presented another polite bill to the town 
besides: "The account of Benjamin Partridge for the 
rent of my house Lett to the French famely viz James 
Mero the sum which I expect the Town will pay is l£ 18s. 
Please to grant the same if you think proper. 

Ben J Partridge jr." 

In 1765 there came a strange and complicated quarrel 
over the town meeting. The regular annual meeting was 
held on March 6, and it adjourned to March 15. At 



122 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

that time it was voted to dismiss the moderator at his 
request, and for some reason that is not apparent, to 
dismiss all the other officers who were chosen with him. 
Others were now chosen in their places, though nineteen 
voters protested. A petition to the General Court 
headed by the man chosen treasurer March 6, caused 
the action of the March 15 meeting to be annulled. The 
town was ordered to complete the March 6 list of officers. 
A meeting for that purpose in July started with a dispute 
about the moderator. The March 6 moderator was 
chosen again. Eleven men wanted four additional 
selectmen chosen, to make nine in all; the meeting could 
not agree on that proposal and had to adjourn without 
deciding for or against it. In October, however, by 
order of the Superior Court, another meeting was held 
and nine men were elected, though twenty-six voters 
protested. They were upheld by the General Court, 
which had to interfere the next January to declare that 
a second annual meeting could not increase the number 
of selectmen and assessors chosen originally on March 5, 
but only choose the other town officers required. Caleb 
Phillips, the March 6 treasurer, won at last, and he was 
re-elected for four years more; the next year the number 
of selectmen became five again, as it was before. 

"To M/rs loshua phillips David Thom/on Eli/ha 
Burr & Elias Thayer Serjeants of the Military Company 
in Bellingham. 

"You are hereby required to make diligent Inquiry 
into the State of Said Company, and on Thursday next 
to take an Exact li/t of the names and view the arms of 
Such Soldiers and Inliabitants within the Limits of it 
as well those on the alarm, as on the training band lift, 
and to See whether Each of them is provided with a 
well fixed firelock or mufquet of musquet or bastard 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 123 

musquet bore the barrel not Lefs than three feet and an 
half a Snapsack a collar with twelve bandaliers or Cartuch 
box one pound of Good powder, twenty bullets fit for his 
gun and twelve flints a Good Sword or Cutla/h, a worm 
and priming wire fit for his Gun and Immediately after 
make return to me of Said Li/t and of any Defects of 
Arms or otherwife, and the names of Defective persons 
that they may bee prosecuted as the Law has provided 
and Such Care may be taken as is proper to Remedy 
the Same Fail not Bellingham September the 19 1766 
John Goldsbury Jun' Capt. of S*^ Company" 

In 1767 town warrants were to be posted in the three 
meeting houses in town; besides the old original one and 
that of the Baptists there was another at the South End 
never finished, used by Universalists and later by Wright 
Curtis as a tavern, at Crooks Corner. 

"1771 To the Selectmen . . . these are to certefie 
you one . . . came into my house the Ninth Day of this 
Instant December how Long he will tarey with me I 
Can not tell he is a poor man & says yt he is 63 years 
old he behaves well John Corbitt. " 

"Petition to the Gen Ct We Apprehend that the 
Town is overburdened in the valuation of 1772 in that 
there is set to our town more than our Proportion to each 
$1000. And in being fined £6 in the year 1771 and £8 
in the year 1773 for not sending a Representative. 

"Our reasons of complaint are: That one third of 
the Inhabitants are Really Poor and the limits of the 
Town Small Being two miles a quarter and 8 rods wide 
in the middle & southward, towards the North a little 
wider & 5 or 6 miles long. That the greater part of 
the land is sandy Dry Pitch Pine or hard Barren land. 
That the assessors who returned our valuation to the 
General Court in 1772 made a mistake. They set down 



124 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

to US two Iron works when in fact there is not nor ever 
was any in Belhngham. That sd Assessors set to us 10 
Tan houses or shops. That one of these has been Useless 
for more than 7 years & no profit to the Town. That 
one of the shops set to us belongs to the owner of a Fullin 
mill & he uses the shop only to sheer Dye & Press in, 
And ought not to be added to the Town besides or over 
& above the fullin mill as a separate building. That 
several of the shops are Blacksmiths & so little done in 
it, that it would be as well for the owners & the Town if 
there was none in it. That one Potash is only a shed 
& but one small kettell in it & never much Done in it. 
That in 1772 we had not one Trading shop in the town. 
That there are four Mills set to the Town; which are 
all on the same stream & Dont go above four months 
in a Year By reason of flowing meadows in the spring 
& want of water in the fall. That we are obliged to go 
out of Town for most of our Smith work mill work & all 
our Shop Goods. That Endeavors have been used to 
obtaine the Oreginal accounts that the Committee of 
valuation had but have been unsuccessful therein. That 
we have been favoured by Several Respectfull members 
with Copys of some of them And by them we find that 
shops &c are set to Bellingham which is the farthest 
Town in the County of Sufl'olk from Boston at a greater 
sum than in other towns nearer. That Cow Pastures 
Tuns of English hay Barels of Cyder . . . are set to us 
as high as in other towns. All which appears to us 
Unequal. That it is a grief to us that we are not Able 
to mainttain a Member with You & Support our families 
& our Poor & Pay our Taxes. That we hope eir long 
to Enjoy the Priviledge of a Member with You. That 
we acknowledge the favours shown us by the Assembly 
Perticularly that when we were fined about 20 years ago. 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 125 

on our Setting forth our Poverty the then Assembly 
remitted our fine & we never were fined before or since 
untill the Year 1771. 

("We pray for a lower rate, remission of said fines, 
and excuse for not sending a Represent this year) 

"John Metcalf Robert Smith Samuel Scott Committee. 

"This committee did not proffer the above Peti- 
tion." 

It was written by John Metcalf. 

" 1773 Put to vote to see if the town will send to 
Court aney more to get the fines of (off) that we are 
fined for not sending a Representative in years passed. 
Passed in the negetive. " 

In 1774 the old first meeting house was finally sold 
at auction in several lots for £9 4s. 

Now come the anxious times of the Revolution. 
In 1774 Luke Holbrook was a delegate to the Provincial 
Congress at Cambridge, and the town voted to buy 
powder. A committee of inspection of fifteen men was 
chosen to see that each man was prepared for his duty 
"are a (any) three of them to be a coram" (quorum). 
The town kept a representative in the Provincial Congress 
and paid his expenses. It voted a bounty to its soldiers 
and had its committee of correspondence. Stephen 
Metcalf was the town's first representative at the General 
Court in 1775, and went with elaborate and fervid instruc- 
tions, as the custom was. 

England's authority was promptly disowned in the 
following resignation of the Selectmen: "We the Sub- 
scribers Whose Names are hereunto affixed do of our own 
free Will and Accord freely fully and absolutely resign 
and disclaim any Power or Authority We have held or 
might have, hold, use, possess or enjoy by Virtue of any 
Commission we have held under Thomas Hutchinson 



126 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Esqr late Governor of this Province; And that for the 
future We Will not Exercise any Power or Authority 
by Virtue of the Same In Witness Whereof we have 
hereunto Set our hands this Ninth Day of January 
Anno Domini 1775. 
" Joseph Holbrook Daniel Penniman Jesse Holbrook." 

In 1776 the town warrant was under the new name, 
" The Government and People of Massachusetts Bay. '* 

"July 4 1776 Voted that in case the Honble Conti-* 
nental Congress should think it necessary for the safety 
of the united colonies to declare them independent of 
Great Britain, The Inhabitants of this town with their 
lives & fortunes will cheerfully support them in the 
measure. " 

"July 22 1776 Met at 6 A M at Elias Thayer's 
house and voted to pay four men £11 each" and to borrow 
money. 

In September the Massachusetts House of Repre- 
sentatives resolved "that the towns consider whether 
they will give their consent that this House & Council 
enact a Constitution, and if they would direct that it 
be made public before being ratified by this Assembly." 
But when the royal authority came to an end, the towns 
felt themselves almost sovereign, like the Colonies of 
the Confederation before the adoption of the United 
States Constitution. They were not looking for a constitu- 
tion made by any other authority than thei r own. Already 
in May Bellingham had instructed its Representative 
Stephen Metcalf to try for a more democratic govern- 
ment, more economical and closer to the common people. 
In October it chose a special committee to reply to this 
resolve of the House, consisting of Dr. John Corbet, 
"Crowner" John Metcalf, Elder Noah Alden, Deacon 
Samuel Darling and Lieut. Seth Hall, and voted to print 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 127 

their report. It was as follows, adopted by the town in 
Dec 1776: 

" We are of opinion that the settling a form of govern- 
ment for this State is a matter of the greatest Importance 
of a civil nature that we were ever concerned in and 
ought to be proceeded in with the greatest caution and 
deliberation. It appears to us that the General Assembly 
of this State have well expressed that power always resides 
in the body of the people. We understand that all males 
above 21 years of age meeting in each separate town 
and acting the same thing and all their acts united 
together make an act of the body of the people. We 
apprehend it would be proper that the form of govern- 
ment originate in each town, and by that means we may 
have ingenuity of all the state, and it may qualify men 
for public action, which might be effected if the present 
Hon House of Representatives would divide the State 
into districts of about thirty miles diameter or less if it 
appear most convenient, so that none be more than 
fifteen miles from the center of the district, that there 
may be an easy communication between each town and 
the center of its district, that no town be divided, and 
that each town choose one man out of each 30 inhab- 
itants to be a committee to meet as near the center of 
the district as may be; to meet about six weeks after 
the House of Representatives have issued their order 
for the towns to meet to draw a form of government, 
and the same committee to carry with them the form of 
government their town has drawn to the district meeting 
and compare them together and propose to their towns 
what alteration their town in their opinion ought to make, 
and said committee in each district to adjourn to carry 
to their several towns and lay before them in town meeting 
for that end, the form of government each district has 



128 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

agreed to, and the town agrees to or alters as they see 
meet; after which the district committee meets according 
to adjournment and revise the form of government; after 
which each district committee choose a man as a com- 
mittee to meet all as one committee at Watertown at 12 
weeks after the order of the House of Representatives 
for the town, first meeting to draw a form of Government, 
which committee of the whole State may be empowered 
to send precepts to the several towns in this State to 
choose one man out of sixty to meet in a convention at 
Watertown or such other town as such committee shall 
judge best. Six weeks from the time of said district's 
last settling the one man out of sixty, to meet in conven- 
tion to draw from the forms of government drawn by 
each committee one form of government for the whole 
state; after which said convention sends to each town 
the form of government they have drawn for the town's 
confirmation or alteration and then adjourn, notifying 
each town to make return to them of their doings at said 
convention and at said adjournment said convention draw 
a general plan or form of government for the State, so 
that they add nothing to nor diminish nothing from the 
general sense of each town, and that each town be at the 
charge of all those employed in the affair. " 

In the midst of the excitement and distress of 
the war time a prominent man, Sylvanus Scott, died, 
and his wife three days later, of smallpox as their grave- 
stone says. The next month the town voted, "Whereas 
some people think they have small pox, the constable 
is to impress the house of John Coombs for a small pox 
hospital. The selectmen are to provide a doctor and 
nurse. Each person to pay on leaving after one week 
after inoculation $8, or $7 if they board themselves. Also 
voted that the town forbids any Person from having the 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 129 

Small Pox in the house of Daniel Penniman or Silas Pen- 
niman Except sd Silas who is so bad that it is dangerous 
to remove him, and if any Person or Persons shall be so 
Presumptious as to have the Small Pox in either of them 
Housen they shall forfeit to the town Ten Pounds to be 
recovered of them by the town treasurer." 

Again in May of the next year the Selectmen issued 
a warrant for a special town meeting, " 1 To See if the 
Town will give Leave that Jabez Metcalf and such others 
as may Joyn with him in Building a house on the Land 
of John Metcalf at his New orchard in the wood North 
of the County Road that the said Jabez Metcalf his Wife 
and child may have the Small Pox and others in Said 
house. 2 Or See if the Town will give Leave that the 
Sd Jabez Metcalf Wife and others May have the Small 
Pox in Any other house in This Town." 

In May 1777 Ezekiel Bates was chosen to procure 
and lay before a special committee evidence of the inimical 
disposition of any inhabitant to the United States of 
America. 

"Sep 22 1777 chose a committee of seven to report 
what more to do for men (of the army) in this town." 
In May, 1779, a committee was chosen to hire men for 
the service of the United States at the town's expense. 

The following account of a Bellingham soldier's 
experience is in his own words, somewhat shortened. 
"I Joseph Frost of Bellingham Enlisted into the American 
Annie During the War in September 1776, & I was at 
the taking General Burguine in 1777. it was written 
on my Enlistment (a Bounty which I Reed) & I was to 
have five hundred acors of land or five Hundred Dollars 
at the End of the War and Monthly Wages (& after 
wards a Bounty of 80 Dollars Granted by Congress) 
which Bounty I have not Reed. 



130 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

"in August 1778 I was in a Scouting Party at the 
white Plains when I & one Griffin was taken by four 
men on the British Hght horse Who came upon us as 
we ware Drinking at a well they rushed on us out of the 
wood, & they carried us onto long Island Put us into Prison 
in a meeting house there, & two or three Dayes after we 
were taken I & P Griffin Dug under the Sell of the Prison 
in the Night Secreted our Selves on long Island near a 
week & Got of long Island & Got a Passage unto Sea 
Brook in Connecticut, from thence I came to Boston 
and Enlisted on bord the Continental friggit named 
the Rawlee of 36 Guns this was in September 1778 
I then Reed forty Dollars Bounty & was to have ten 
Dollars per month Wages three Days after we sailed 
Capt Berry was Drove ashore on the wooden Ball East- 
ward of Boston By Sr James Wallace on Bord the Expere- 
ment of 50 Guns & the Unicorn 28 Guns British men of 
war, Capt Berre with near half his men in Botes Got off 
in the night, I & the rest of the men were taken & carried 
to York & I & Eleven more were Put on Bord A British- 
man of war named the Delleware Friggit Capt Mason 
on Bord which we remained near 8 months all but 4 of 
us were over Pers waded to do Duty on Bord, But I & 3 
more would not tho striped & thretened to be whiped, 
the vessell crusing about Came Near Guernsey near old 
England we 4 were carried on shore and committed to 
the Goal in Guernsey & there kept untill Peace was 
Declared we were then set at liberty & we shiped on Bord 
a vessell Bound to the West Indies & we got to Antego 
& Now I am Got to Bellingham again September 30 1784." 

From 1775 to 1780 the bounties paid to Revolu- 
tionary soldiers amounted to twelve thousand one hundred 
and fifty-eight pounds in Continental currency of varying 
value and two thousand five hundred and sixty-four 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 



131 



pounds in solid coin. Three hundred and twenty different 
payments were made, but some men had more than one 
term of service. There were only one hundred and 
twenty-one families in town by the census of 1790, fifteen 
years later, with one hundred and eighty-seven males 
over sixteen years of age. In 1905 the town spent 
seventy-five dollars in marking Revolutionary graves; 
twenty-one at North Bellingham, thirteen at South Bel- 
lingham and a few others. 

There is no complete list of the soldiers in the town 
records, but these ninety names have been found: 



Amos Adams 
Samuel Alvison 
Silas " 

Peter Albee 
Elisha Aklen 
Noah Alden jr 
Simon Alvison 
John Arnold 
Samuel " 
James Bailey 
David Belcher 
Ichabod Bosworth 
Abel Bullard 
William Chase jr 
John Chilson 
Benjamin Clark 
Daniel Cook jr 
David Cook jr 
John Cook 
John Coombs jr 
Levi Daniels 
Dennis Darling 
Eben Darling 



Joshua Darling 
Levi " 

Moses jr " 
Richard " 
Ichabod Draper 
Stephen Easty 
Amos Ellis 
Nathan Ereeman 
Joseph Frost 
Thaddeus Gibson 
John Goodman 
John Hall 
Elisha I lay ward 
Ezekicl " 
Aaron Hill 
Moses Hill 
Abijah Holbrook 
Amariah 
Asa " 

Asahel 
Elijah 

Henry " 

Capt Jesse > " 



Nathan Holbrook 
Phineas 
Seth 

David Jones 
Joel Leg 
Jabez Met calf 
Joseph Partridge 
Silas Pemiinian 
David Perry 
Joseph " 
Lot 

Oliver " 
Caleb Phillips 
John " 
Joshua " 
Stephen " 
Samuel Pickering 
.John Rockwood 
Joseph " jr 
Levi " 

David Scott 
Jonathan 
Nathan 



Sylvanus 
Icliabod Scaver 
George Slocomb 
Robert Smith jr 
David Staples 
Elias Thayer 
Ezekiel " 
Nathaniel " 
Amos Thomson 
Caleb 'I 

Cyrus 

Daniel Trask 
Benjamin Twitchell 
Joseph Ward jr 
Abner Wight 
Samuel Wight jr 
David Thomson 
Nathan Trask 
Samuel Twist 
John Lipham 
Stephen Wyman 



The town's great interest in the Revolution and 
improvement in government and the general public 
welfare was accompanied by an increased demand for 
public education. In 1777 a public subscription was 
made, to be "added to the old School Bank money on 
hand," which was one hundred and ninety-three pounds 



132 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

four shillings seven pence. Seth Arnold gave ten pounds, 
and thirty-one persons in all raised one hundred pounds, 
"a permanent fund, the interest to be used for schools 
on the plan agreed on in 1744." 

The General Court in 1778 met as a convention 
and formed a constitution for the state, which was rejected 
by a vote of the people of five to one. In Bellingham 
John Metcalf's diary says: "73 males voted to Disaprove 
the form of Government & none for it." The next May 
our town "voted that it is Time to have a New Consti- 
tution or form of Government Made As Soon as May Bee. 
They think the General Court Out Not to Be imPowered 
to Call a Convention to Draw up a form of Government. " 
The General Court called a convention as the towns 
wished, and the Bellingham minister was a member of 
it. He wrote to his best adviser and friend, the Baptist 
minister at Middleborough : 

"Our town have chosen me as thare Delegate to go 
to Cambridge for the Sole purpose of forming a New 
Constitution or forme of Government for this State the 
waitest affar of a temporal nature I humbly conceive 
that Ever this state tuck in hand the vue I have of the 
matter is that it is Essentially nessary that in the first 
place thare should be a bill of Rights assertaining what 
are the natural sivel and Religious Rights of the people 
and a form of government predecated upon said bill 
of rights perfectly agreabel thare to and Never Know 
laws afterwards made Repugnant to said Bill of Rights 
but as I am sensabel that the delegates will not be all 
of my mind and the work is grate and my gifts Small 
and I am inexperienced in a work of this sort Dear brother 
I pray you to favour me with your mind on the subject 
Expesualy what are the Rights of the people and how 
that Bill of Rights ought to be Drawn. I hope my dear 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 133 

brethren will not forgit me in thare prayers to God that 
I may be Enabled to Contend Earnestly bouldly and 
wisely for the libertys of the people in general and for 
the libertys of the Lords people in purticklure. " 

"Aug 6 1779 To Mr Noah Alden Sir you being 
chosen By the Inhabitants of this Town to Represent 
them in a convention at Cambridge next September for 
the sole Purpose of forming a Constitution for the Massa- 
chusetts we your Constituants Claim it as Our Inherent 
right at all times to Instruct those that Represent us 
But more necessary on such an Important Object which 
not only So Nearly Concerns ourselves But our Posterity, 
we Do in the first place instruct you Previous to your 
Entering upon the framing of a form of Government 
you See that Each part of the State have Properly Deli- 
gated their Power for Such a Purpose and that a Bill of 
Rights Be formed where in the Natural Rites of Indi- 
viduals Be Clearly ascertained that is all Such Rights 
as the Supream Power of the State Shall (have) no 
authority to Controal, to be a part of the Constitution 
that you use your Influence that the Legislative Power 
consist of a Senate and House of Representatives, the 
Representatives to Be Annually Chosen from the Towns 
as they were in the year 1776. that the Constitution 
be so framed that Elections be free and frequent, most 
likely to Prevent bribery Corruption and Influance that 
the Executive Power be So Lodged as to Execute the 
Laws with Dispatch . . . the Senators to be annually 
Chosen by the people That the holding the Court of 
probate ... in but one town in the County as iiereto fore 
. . . has been a grievous burden to us • . . that Each 
Incorporated Town may have power to hold a Court of 
Probate . . . and record Deeds in the same Town. We 
further Instruct you that when you have Drawn a form 



134 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

of government you cause a fair Coppy thereof to be 
Printed . . . that the Convention Adjourn to some 
futer Day and the Coppy be laid before your several 
Towns for their Consideration and Amendment to be 
returned to the Convention, That the Juditial be So 
established that Justice may be impartially Demon- 
strated without Enormous Expense that the Right of 
Trial by Jury be kept Sacred and Close . . . that Statutes 
of Old England nor any foreign Law be adopted . . . 
that a County Assemble be Established to Grant 
County Taxes in each county and settle all the county 
Matters." 

The convention met in September, 1779. In the 
Bill of Rights, Article III, Religious Rights, required the 
most discussion, lasting about two weeks. After a free and 
general debate, a special committee of seven was chosen, 
containing two men who became governors of the State, 
and two who became judges of its Supreme Court, these 
four being strict supporters of the old established church, 
a prominent patriot from Western Massachusetts, Rev. 
David Sanford of the West Parish and his neighbor Mr. 
Alden. The humble Baptist elder from Bellingham, 
who knew that the work was "grate and his gifts Small," 
was the chairman of this important committee. Neither 
its discussions nor the debates of the whole convention 
have been preserved. Its reported draft of Article III 
was debated three days, and then assigned for further 
consideration. It was adopted by the convention without 
much change, and remained in force till 1833. In sub- 
stance it was this: As happiness and good government 
depend on piety, religion and morality; as these cannot 
be generally spread without public worship and instruc- 
tion; therefore the legislature shall require towns to pro- 
vide for public worship and teachers of morality, and shall 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 135 

require people to attend church. Towns shall choose 
their own public teachers. All taxes for religious purposes 
shall support the teacher desired by those who pay them, 
provided the town has such a teacher; otherwise the 
public teacher of the town. All religious denominations 
shall be equally protected by the law. 

This article was not more liberal in effect than the 
conditions that had prevailed before. The smaller 
and poorer sects like the Baptists, who could not possibly 
maintain a church in every town, could still be taxed 
unjustly, though they had some relief in special laws 
and in the forebearance of some towns. The Baptists 
immediately protested to the General Court, but in vain. 

Article III was opposed by three classes: some 
wanted all sects publicly supported, but treated more 
equally, some wanted only voluntary support, and a 
few wanted greater strictness in favoring the old church. 
In 1833 Amendment XI provided that any religious 
society may tax its members only with their own consent. 

After this, the longest discussion of the convention, 
it adjourned November 11 till the next January. This 
happened to be the worst winter since 1717; the Hartford 
Turnpike through our town was the only road open to 
travel towards the central part of the State; and the 
convention presented its constitution to the people on 
March 2. In June the convention declared it adopted 
by the votes of the people, and it went into effect. This 
convention has been called the body of men which best 
expressed the spirit of the American Revolution. 

In 1782 in its instructions to its Representative, 
Stephen Metcalf, the town wanted to have all State 
salaries reduced. Representatives paid by their own 
towns, the General Court to meet away from Boston, 
a report to be made of all State income and expenses, 



136 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

"that SO the people who have a right to know, may know 
how the money is expended that they pay," a separate 
report of the State's annual expense for "Continental 
affairs" and of its debt for that purpose, and a great 
reduction in the cost of getting justice in the courts. 

Aaron Holbrook was the town's first Representative 
after Stephen Metcalf, in 1788. He was instructed to 
try to establish courts of small circuit "to be nearer the 
small towns," and "that the banefull gugaws of Briton 
and all West India goods like sugar, tea & coffee that the 
Publick can best do without, be heavily dutied. We 
charge you to encourage home manufactorys." 

The Constitution of the United States was adopted 
in Massachusetts in 1788 by one hundred and eighty-seven 
Yeas and one hundred and sixty-eight Nays, with just 
nine men absent. In our county only five men in thirty- 
nine were opposed, the delegates of Stoughton, Sharon, 
Medway, Wrentham and Bellingham. One writer 
remarks that "Medway and Bellingham and other towns 
near Rhode Island had been more or less otherwise- 
minded all through the Revolutionary times." There 
were over twenty Baptists in this convention, and two- 
thirds of them voted against the constitution, as forming 
too strong a government; Mr. Alden was one of them. 

A description of the town in 1784 in a " Gazetteer " 
is as follows: " Belliiigham There is but one pond, 
beaver dam pond, remarkable for depth of water and miry 
shores almost surrounded by a cedar swamp. Into Charles 
River flow three small streams. North Branch, Stall 
Brook, Beaver Dam Brook. Peter's River and Bunge Brook 
in the south part empty at Providence. 

" There are two grist mills, two saw mills and one 
fulling mill but of little or no use except in winter for 
want of water, nor all used even then. Roads are tol- 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 137 

erably good but in some places very sandy. The trade 
is very small; people depend on the land and some mechan- 
ical employments. Almost every family is provided with 
a pair of looms by which they make nearly enough clothing 
for themselves. The number of farms is about 80. 
The inhabitants are about equally divided between the 
Congregational and Baptist persuasions. The latter 
have a house and a settled minister. The principal part 
of the Congregationalists in 1747 was incorporated with 
the West Parish of Med way." 

Poverty began to be more noticeable after the war, 
and perhaps for that reason swine were allowed to run 
at large again. No overseers of the poor were chosen 
till 1775. In 1786 "Voted that the Overseers of the 
Poore Put out the Town's Poore at the Best of their 
Disgression either at Vandue or any other way." A man 
working on the highway got four pence an hour and the 
same amount for his cart and oxen. 

The valuation for 1787 was: 



91 houses at 45s., £204, 15s. 


Money at interest and on hand. 


£1,000 


72 barns at 18s., 64,16s. 


Goods, 


271 


20 stoves at 5s., 5, 5s. 


63 horses. 


378 


2 mills at 50s., 5 


117 oxen. 


319 


627 a-res of mowing, 232, 3s. 


305 cows. 


1.220 


172 barrels of "cyder", 21 


381 goats and sheep. 


115 


598 acres of tillage, 125 


57 swine. 


34 


360 acres of meadow, 239 


Coaches and chaises, 


40 


1172 acres of pasture, 146 


Gold, 


10 


5099 acres of woodland. 111 


Silver, 


127 



A cow was nearly worth two houses. 

The first school committee for the whole town was 
chosen in 1791, and one constable and collector instead 
of two. He offered to collect the taxes for £2 14 s. 

In 1792 and 1793 the town refused to provide a house 
for smallpox inoculation: "The Town disapprove of the 
Small pox coming into Tawn Contrary to Law." 



138 



HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 



In 1794 the tax collector's pay was in dollars instead 
of pounds. Swine were confined to their residences from 
this time on. 

In 1798 three hundred and seven pupils in six dis- 
tricts cost $219, and $200 was spent on highways, paying 
wages of 6 cents an hour. 

In 1798 the United States laid a direct tax on real 
estate of two classes, of which the original details have 
been preserved. Stephen Metcalf was the principal 
assessor for the three towns of Bellingham, Wrentham 
and Franklin, and Laban Bates was one of his four 
assistants. Ninety-three houses with lots of not over 
two acres were found in Bellingham worth at least $100, 
of which these fourteen were valued at $400 or more: 



William Adams ${.40 

Laban Akirich 517 

Laban Bates 962 

Ezra Fonistall 495 

Jesse Hill 005 



Daniel Jones $825 
David Jones 610 

Stephen Metcalf 660 
Daniel Paine 495 

Dani?I Penniman 543 



John Scammell $660 
Seth Shearman 660 
Eliab Wight 440 

William Whittaker 638 



On other land than house lots, one hundred and 
fourteen men were taxed, of whom thirty-one had land 
valued at $800 or more: 



Amos Adams 


$1000 


Joseph Fairbanks$2100 


John Scammell 


S-g3128 


Laban Aldrich 


1050 


Ezra Forristall 


1500 


Samuel Scott 


1300 


Ezekiel Bates 


2400 


Aaron Hill 


900 


Saul Scott 


1460 


Laban Bafes 


5050 


Seth Holbrook 


900 


Nehemiah Shearman 1050 


•John Chilson 


2000 


Stephen " 


950 


Seth 


1550 


Joseph " 


900 


David Jon-^s 


3000 


Simon Slocomb 


900 


Joshua 


1450 


Elisha Kelly 


1260 


Pelatiah Smith 


810 


Ezekiel Cook 


1200 


Stephen Metealf 


2032 


Elias Thayer 


1330 


Stephen Cook 


800 


Gideon Paine 


1500 


Eliab Wight 


900 


Amariah Cushman 810 


Daniel Penniman 


1720 






Amos Ellis 


1050 


Joshua Phillips 


1360 







The nine men who owned the most real estate within 
the town were Laban Bates $6112, John Scammell $3788, 
David Jones $3640, Stephen Metcalf $2692, Daniel 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1747-1819 139 

Penniman $2263, Seth Shearman $2210, Joseph Fair- 
banks $2100, John Chilson $2000, and Ezra Forristall 
$1995. Of course these small figures are not understood 
unless we remember the changed value of money and the 
few rich men in early times. The richest man in the 
United States in 1799 was thought to be George Wash- 
ington, whose property was estimated at $500,000, 
mostly land and slaves. 

The building of the town house in 1802 has been 
related in the last chapter. It is shown in the town 
seal in its original form, before the curved top of the 
porch became unsafe and was removed. 

The first vote in town meeting after choosing officers 
had kept its place sacredly from the beginning: swine 
and cattle shall or shall not run at large this year. It 
had been negative for fifteen years, but in 1809 "Those 
People that have but one cow may run at Large by 
obtaining leave of the Selectmen." 

The town gave at least five soldiers to the War of 
1812 with Great Britain, whose graves are in the Centre 
Cemetery: Joseph Adams, Laban Burr, Mason Clark, 
William Paine, and Warren L. Lazell. In 1814 a vol- 
untary and popular military company was formed, the 
Bellingham Rifles, which had a long and successful career. 
The town was not excused from maintaining its standing 
militia company besides. 

The store at Bellingham Centre had now been kept 
for several years. Christopher Slocomb ended his part- 
nership with John Thayer there in 1815. 

In 1816 it was voted "to transfer all business that 
hath been done at the September meeting to the April 
meeting and discontinue the former." 

During its first century the town's population had 
grown very slowly except at last, when the factories 



140 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

were built on Charles River. Mr. Fisher estimated six 
persons to a family at the beginning, and two hundred 
and forty persons in all. A state census in 1765 showed 
four hundred and sixty-five in eighty-two families living 
in seventy-two houses, two hundred and thirty of them 
children under sixteen, and eight negroes. In 1776 the 
total was six hundred and twenty-seven; in 1790 the 
first United States census showed seven hundred and 
thirty-five, in one hundred and twenty-one families. 
Three hundred and thirty-two persons then bore one of 
these eight names: 

Adams, 4 families, 27 persons. Holbrook, 12 families, 71 persons. 

Cook, 8 families, 57 persons. Scott, 6 families, 47 persons. 

Darling, 9 families, 46 persons. Thayer, 5 families, 36 persons. 

Hill, 4 families, 17 persons. Thompson, 4 families, 31 persons. 

In 1800 the population fell to seven hundred and six; 
in 1810 it was seven hundred and sixty-six, but in 1820 
it had become one thousand thirty-four. 




ADDISON E. BULLARD 



Chapter X 
THE MILLS 

For its first century the people of this town were 
practically all farmers; during the second they have 
produced much more wealth in manufactures than on 
the farms, though the majority of the men have not been 
at work in the mills until lately. Of course the variety 
of employment has increased greatly in our time. Of the 
manufactured goods, boots and shoes were about one- 
third in value in both 1845 and 1876, but both before 
and since those dates cotton and woolen goods were 
generally at least three-fourths of the whole. So in a 
sense the mills have been the most important thing in 
the town during this last century. Here are some reports 
of its industries in the past. 

In 1828 Bellingham was "an active and flourishing 
manufacturing town." 

In 1831 three cotton factories with twenty-six looms 
and one thousand five hundred and seventy-six spindles 
made goods worth $11,032; a woolen factory with nine 
looms and two hundred and forty spindles, goods worth 
$2880. 

In 1837 two mills with one thousand six hundred 
and seventy-two spindles made four hundred and twenty- 
seven thousand four hundred and seventy yards of 
cotton goods worth $35,110, and employed twenty men 
and thirty-four women. The woolen mill with two sets 
of machinery made twenty-four thousand yards worth 

141 



142 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

$62,000. Fourteen thousand five hundred and seventy 
pairs of boots and two hundred and twenty pairs of shoes 
were made, worth $28,077, and one thousand four hundred 
and fifty straw bonnets worth $2650. 

In 1845 three cotton mills with two thousand five 
hundred and twenty spindles produced $33,640 in print 
cloth, thread and sheetings, and the two set woolen mill 
$10,000. Other products were brushes, carriages, farm 
tools, glue, straw braid, rowboats, etc. Boots were 
valued at $48,862, lumber $20,194, fruit one thousand 
four hundred and fifty-five bushels and hay one thousand 
fifty-two tons. All manufactures $150,000. 

In 1855 the boots and shoes came to $117,000. 

In 1860 three cotton factories with eighty-four looms 
and four thousand four hundred and twenty spindles pro- 
duced $18,700, the woolen mill $500, three boot factories 
$15,000, and two shoe shops $90. 

In 1875 the whole capital invested in town was 
$480,000, and the product was $638,547. $150,000 
invested in mills produced $830,000 in goods, $25,000 
in boots and shoes produced $33,000, and $2500 in farm 
tools produced $18,000. 

In 1876 eleven manufacturing establishments had a 
capital of $178,900 and produced $544,530. Boots and 
shoes amounted to $180,000; manufacturers of iron to 
$1400. One hundred and fifty farms were valued at 
$207,396. Agricultural products were $94,017 and lumber 
had reached $121,000 in one year. 

In 1883 there were four factories, three gristmills, 
seven sawmills and five stores in town. 

In 1885 ten manufacturing establishments, including 
two woolen mills, a boot factory and two food factories, 
produced $419,412, and one hundred and thirty-one farms 
$91,445. 



THE MILLS 143 

Almost all the colonists wore homespun clothes. A 
fulling mill to dress this cloth appeared at Watertown in 
1662, and in three other towns by 1670. The first cotton 
mill in the United States was at Beverly in 1787. The 
Slater mill at Pawtucket started in 1798, the Med way 
Cotton Manufacturing Company began in 1804, and the 
Norfolk Cotton Factory at Dedham in 1808. Our town 
began the work two years later. 

The North Bellingham Mill, 1810 
The first building was built in 1810 by Joseph Ray, 
a young stone mason of Blackstone. He built many 
other cotton mills in the Blackstone Valley, and his firm, 
Paine & Ray, also made cotton mill machinery, at one 
time in two factories. He ran a cotton mill of his own 
successfully at Hillsboro, New Hampshire, from 1826 to 
the hard times of 1839, when the failure of a great cotton 
firm in Rhode Island involved him with it. His notes 
were extended for five years, and he came to Unionville 
to live. He retired in 1844 and died in 1847, leaving 
three sons, who owned many mills in this vicinity. 

James P., the oldest, taught school at fifteen years 
of age, worked in his father's mill at sixteen and started 
in business for himself in the panic year of 1837, buying 
two hundred pounds of cotton to make cotton batting. 
In 1844 he took his brother Frank into partnership, and 
the third brother Joseph G. in 1851 . James P., the head of 
this firm, was also president of the Milford, Franklin and 
Providence Railroad and a director in many corporations. 
He died in 1894, and left two sons Edgar and James. 

Frank B., the second brother, was interested in 
satinets, fellings and woolen stock, and fond of farming. 
He left the firm in 1860, and died in 1892, leaving only 
one son, William F. Ray. The third brother Joseph 



144 HISTOKY OF BELLINGHAM 

began early in life to work for his brothers in their mill 
at Unionville, and started the first rag picker in this 
vicinity. The firm built one mill after another in several 
towns for both cotton and woolen manufacture, and 
gradually changed from cheaper to higher grades of 
cloth. The Ray Woolen Company mills have now 
generally passed over to the American Woolen Comipany. 
Mr. Ray was president of the Milford, Attleboro and 
Woonsocket Street Railroad, a director in many companies, 
and probably no man in this vicinity had larger business 
interests than he. He married the daughter of Joseph 
Rockwood of Bellingham, and made her home into an 
elegant summer residence, with a race course, an artificial 
pond and a stock farm. The estate after his death 
included nearly four hundred acres. Mr. Ray died in 
1900, leaving two daughters. 

The North Bellingham mill was first run by a com- 
pany of which Dr. Nathaniel Miller of Franklin was the 
head. He was a graduate of Bowdoin College and the 
Harvard Medical School, and an eminent physician. 
He built a building near his house for the use of his 
patients. He had a small thread mill, and was a prominent 
citizen of the town. 

In 1813 he sold to Samuel Penniman of South Milford 
one-eighth of their property of thirteen acres for $162. 
He was the son of Landlord Penniman, and was starting 
the South Milford factory about this time. In 1814 
another partner sold to "Dr. Nathaniel Miller, Whiting 
Metcalf of Franklin, Samuel Penniman and Seth Hastings 
of Mendon, now constituting the Bellingham Cotton 
Manufacturing Company" one-eighth of about sixty 
acres in three pieces for $1840. Dr. Miller now owned 
one-half and the other three one-sixth each. 

Seth Hastings was a prominent lawyer of Mendon, 



THE MILLS 145 

whose opinion was often asked by Stephen Metcalf . He 
was born at Cambridge in 1762, graduated at Harvard 
College and settled in Mendon. The story is told that 
he hesitated between that town and Worcester, and 
decided that Mendon had a better prospect for him. 
He arrived with all his property tied up in a red hand- 
kerchief, but he married a rich wife and became a member 
of Congress, as did his son after him. 

In 1815 Penniman sold two and one third 
of fifty-four acres and "a stone factory" to Hastings for 
$1535. He sold his whole share, seven thirty-seconds, 
in 1820, to Joseph Ray and Rila Scott for $984. These 
two men probably married sisters. Rila Scott was born 
on Scott Hill in 1795 and had five children. He was a 
cloth manufacturer in several towns in Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island and New Hampshire and settled in Miford 
in 1850. His father, Saul, 1674-1834, married a Ballou 
and had thirteen children. He was the son of Deacon 
Samuel, the son of Joseph, the "bloomer." Ray and 
Scott bought out the other partners also in 1820, and then 
sold the property, which was now fourteen acres, in 1822, 
to Underwood & Drake of Rhode Island for $7650. This 
firm held it for two years and then sold it to Nathan A. 
Arnold, Peleg Kent, and Seth Arnold of Cumberland 
for $8400. 

Seth Arnold, 1799-1883, was a descendant of Richard 
Arnold, the first settler of Woonsocket, whose father came 
from England in 1635, and settled in Providence in 1661. 
Richard's grandson John built the first frame house at 
Woonsocket in 1711, and a gristmill below the falls. His 
grandson, Nathan, was a captain in the Revolution. He 
had a son Nathan whose wife lived to nearly one hundred 
years, and their son was Seth the cotton manufacturer. 
In 1840 he began to make patent medicines also, and 



146 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

built up a great business. He was a man of a quiet, 
retiring disposition. 

These purchasers gave Underwood & Drake a remark- 
able mortgage, promising $377 every two months till $5276 
was repaid. In 1827 Saul Scott, Rila's father, who had 
lent $2250 to Ray & Scott in 1820, released his claim on 
the property to the Pawtucket Bank for $1000, and in 
the same year Samuel Metcalf of Providence, another 
creditor, got an execution against Arnold & Kent on 
their stone factory. In 1829 after the mortgage came 
into his hands, Jabed Ingraham of Seekonk, " Gentleman," 
sold to the Pawtucket Bank for $10,000, fourteen acres, 
and the mill mortgaged by Arnold & Kent to Underwood 
& Drake. He may have had some other business with 
the bank at the same time. The bank held it only a 
few months, and sold it to Benedict & Wood, manufac- 
turers, of Smithfield, for $4000, and they sold it soon for 
the same sum to D. C. Gushing and Nathan Giles. Mr. 
Gushing died soon after, and his partner, Giles, a lame 
man, ran the mill till it burned in 1838. The next year 
he sold out half to Varnum D. Bates of Providence, a 
deacon in the First Baptist Ghurch and a commission 
merchant, and the other half to Noah J. Arnold, a mill 
overseer from Goventry, Gonnecticut. They rebuilt 
it and ran it for twenty years. Arnold was an ardent 
Whig in politics, very active in the Harrison and Tyler 
presidential campaign. 

Besides the North Bellingham mill, Bates & Arnold 
bought of D wight Golburn for $2400 in 1841 his stone 
cotton factory higher up the Gharles River where the 
Red Mill is. The deed is very long, with about two 
thousand words, describing three tracts of land. Bates 
bought three-fourths and Arnold one-fourth. In 1842 
they borrowed $10,000 on a mortgage from a Bates firm 



THE MILLS 147 

of Pawtucket. They paid Ruel Adams $1060 for the 
right to flow his land for their mill pond, and bought 
such rights from several others in the next three or four 
years. They prospered for some time, but in 1854 they 
borrowed $12,000 of Newell & Daniels of Providence, 
and in the hard times that came soon after Bates had to 
fail and in 1860 they surrendered both the upper and 
the lower mills to their creditors, Newell & Daniels. 

By them the Bates & Arnold mill at North Belling- 
ham was sold in 1864 to J. P., F. B., and J. G. Ray, the 
three sons of the man who built the original stone building 
there, at the war price of $16,500. The brothers kept 
it for thirty-five years till 1899. Their superintendent 
for most of that time was Mr. Hiram Whiting. In 1879 
the property was assessed at $36,400. 

In 1884 it was called a cotton warp woolen satinet 
mill with eight sets and one hundred and fifty hands, 
making one million yards a year. It had been a cotton 
mill till the Rays took it in 1864. In 1886 Mr. Rathbun 
of Woonsocket, who had been a partner in the firm, sold 
out to the others and they took the name of Rays 
Woolen Company. 

In 1899 they sold this mill and another in Franklin 
to the American Woolen Company; the stamps on the deed 
indicate a price of $100,000. The next year the American 
Woolen Company sold the North Bellingham mill with 
twelve lots of land to the Charles River Woolen Company 
of Bellingham at an apparent price of $59,000. In 1912 
this company was dissolved, and the property was bought 
by the newly incorporated Bellingham Woolen Company, 
of which A. E. Bullard is president and W. W. Ollendorf 
is treasurer. 

The present capital is $95,000. There are five pickers, 
ten sets of cards, one hundred and sixty narrow looms 



148 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

and three thousand woolen spindles. Two steam boilers 
are used, besides Edison electric current. The company- 
has forty-nine tenements, a boarding house and a moving 
picture hall, and employs two hundred persons. The 
mill was run at night during the recent war to make 
silk yarn for powder bags, and it sold many thousand 
yards of its regular product, narrow cotton warp woolens, 
to the government. 

The Caryville Mill 

This was the second textile mill in town, started in 
1813 by Joseph Fairbanks. The land where it stood 
was bought by Secretary Rawson of the Indians, sold 
by his son to Hay ward, Sanford and Burch, in 1701, 
by Burch's son to John Metcalf in 1735, and by his 
grandson Stephen to his own son-in-law, Joseph Fair- 
banks, in 1800. He reserved the right to dig a channel 
to get water near the dam, "but not to injure the going 
of the mill." 

The deed of 1813 gave Stephen Metcalf for $71.43 
and certain privileges, one hundred and one rods of land 
to own in common with Joseph Fairbanks, miller, and 
his son, Elijah, Ethan Cobb, Eliphalet Holbrook, Eliab 
Holbrook and Asahel Adams, seven in all, "near said 
Fairbanks' Mills," with the right to convey water from 
his pond in a trench to be dug and stoned ten feet wide 
and four feet deep "to a Cotton Factory which is cal- 
culated to be built," reserving to himself "18 by 
20 feet of the southwest corner of the lower story of 
said Factory" for a gristmill. The factory to be built 
and half the expense of the dam in the future to be paid 
by the seven proprietors, the other half with the sawmill 
"and Trip Hammer Shop flume," to be supported by 
Fairbanks. 



THE MILLS 149 

Probably the quantity of iron manufactured here 
was always small; it may have come from the Mine 
Woods near North Bellingham, which were owned by 
the Metcalf family with others. They had another 
sawmill at least very soon after this time, where Holden's 
mill is now, which made this one less necessary, and 
allowed most of the power to go to the cotton machinery, 
which had the first claim upon it. But the gristmill 
was active for over fifty years, till Joseph's son Jonas 
sold to William Gary, the owner of the cotton mill in 
1862, a quarter acre of land with his gristmill and dam, 
for $1000. 

Joseph Fairbanks was the great grandson of George 
Fairbanks the first settler of Bogastow (Millis), who with 
his neighbors built the famous stone house there for a 
refuge against the Indians in King Philip's War. He 
came to Garyville, bought land of the Metcalf family, 
and married Judge Stephen's daughter Mary in 1787. 
They had only four children. The younger son Jonas 
received the gristmill, while the older Elijah, my grand- 
father, kept the farm at the head of Pearl Street. Elijah 
had eight children, Jonas none, and Elijah's busy wife 
envied her idle sister-in-law who lived in such luxury 
that she even owned a special spider for toasting cheese. 

The seven partners built the stone cotton mill as 
they planned, and one of them sold his seventh to the 
others the next year for $1250. In 1818 Joseph Fair- 
banks mortgaged his homestead to the West Parish of 
Medway, of which he was a member, for $900. Ten 
years later came a catastrophe, for the mill was burnt, 
and "he walked the floor all night." 

The Bellingham farmers were satisfied with their 
experiment, and passed it over to men who gave their 
lives to the business. It was bought and started again 



150 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

by Alexander Wright and Royal Southwick, two of the 
early manufacturers of Lowell, from the five remaining 
partners, and Joseph Fairbanks received $1071 for his 
three-sevenths share. The purchasers gave a mortgage 
of $2200, and two years later in 1830 they sold it to William 
White for $4800. He borrowed $1200 of the West Parish 
for this purchase, but in two years more in 1832, he sold 
to the Bellingham Cotton Manufacturing Company at 
North Bellingham, the factory and land of Joseph Fair- 
banks & Company, with water to run six hundred spindles 
to be taken before all other uses of this power, for $10,000. 

In 1839, after the hard times, George Barber of 
Medway sued the Bellingham Cotton Manufacturing 
Company and got a judgment of $9741. He bought 
their Joseph Fairbanks property at a sheriff's sale for 
$7000, and held it till 1848, when he sold it to his son-in- 
law, William H. Cary, for $5000, subject to mortgages 
of $1700. Cary gave him a mortgage of $3000. In the 
hard times of 1857 he gave another mortgage, to Clark 
Newell & Company of Boston, of $10,000. He weathered 
the storm, and in 1862 he bought out the only other user 
of this water power, Jonas Fairbanks, for $1000. Only 
two years later, in 1864, he sold the mill finally, subject 
to a mortgage of $3700, to Joseph Ray for $20,000. He 
afterwards considered this price too low for the times. 

George Barber and his two sons-in-law had held the 
mill for a generation. He was the great great great 
grandson of George Barber, one of the first settlers of 
Medfield, and born at Millis in 1772. He was a clothier 
and wool carder at Medway Village soon after 1800, and 
owned a small mill for dressing cloth that was built by 
Job Harding in 1795. The wool was carded into rolls 
about three feet long, to be spun and woven in farmers' 
houses, and then dressed, dyed and finished. He had 



THE MILLS 151 

from six to ten apprentices, called the Barber devils, 
when various pranks occurred in the village. With 
two other men he built a cotton mill in Medway, which 
afterwards belonged to William H. Gary. In 1826 
with Alexander Wright, one of the original carpet man- 
ufacturers of Lowell, he went to Europe and brought 
back a skilled mechanic to build cotton machinery. 
They built the second carpet mill in this country, and 
made thread lace. 

Dr. Oliver Dean was another cotton maaufacturer, 
who ran the Medway Village mill at one time, and he 
and George Barber built the great Gary house together, 
at the corner of Barber and Village Streets. Dr. Dean 
became later the superintendent of the Amoskeag Mills 
in Manchester, N. H., and he was the liberal founder 
of Dean Academy in Franldin. He gave away $400,000 
in his lifetime, and endowed the Universalist Ghurch 
there. Mr. Barber lived to be eighty-eight years old. 

One of his nephews was Milton H. Sanford, whose 
father is said to have made in Medway the first cotton 
thread in America. He took up his father's business 
at his death, when only seventeen years old, and was 
a very prosperous manufacturer for fifty years. 

George Barber's daughter Harriet married William 
White in 1830, the year in which he bought the Garyville 
mill. After his death she married William H. Gary in 
1854, who had bought the same mill of her father in 1848. 
He came from Attleboro to Medway with his father in 1818, 
one of eleven children, and began to work in the office of 
William Felt & Gompany, cotton manufacturers, in Med- 
way. After three years in a store he was their agent for 
fourteen years, till they were burned out. He rebuilt 
and enlarged the Garyville mill and built three tenement 
houses there. After selling it he rebuilt the Eagle Mill, 



152 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Wrentham, and then bought the Rockville Mill for 
thread, yarn and sheetings. This he sold in 1871. He 
was in business for sixty years, and for over thirty years 
he produced annually from $75,000 to $100,000 worth 
of goods. He managed a larger property than any 
one else in Medway. He was chairman of a committee 
to grade the Air Line Railroad from Dover to Woon- 
socket. He was well and strong at eighty. He owned 
the Caryville mill for sixteen years, and when the post 
office was opened there in 1866 it was named for him. 

In 1867 Mr. Ray sold the property of eighteen acres 
to Moses Taft of Uxbridge for $30,000. He was born 
there in 1812, near the first woolen mill in town. His 
father, Luke, the fifth from Robert Taft of Mendon in 
1680, set up a spinning jenny of twenty spindles in his 
own house in 1816, and Moses wound bobbins at seven 
years of age. In 1824 his father started a mill of twenty 
power looms and made satinets. The son worked there 
while he went to school, and took charge of it at eighteen. 
After the hard times in 1837 he paid all his debts. He 
owned mills in Burrillville, Uxbridge, Blackstone, Douglas, 
Ashland, Putnam, etc. 

In 1871 Moses Taft sold one-third of the property 
to C. H. Cutler for $11,000. Cotton cloth had always 
been made up to this time, and satinet since then. Mr. 
Cutler was born in Ashland in 1834. He worked first 
in his father's gristmill, and then at Uxbridge and Mil- 
ford. In 1864 he was superintendent at the South Mil- 
ford mill of Thayer & Sweet. Among his papers is one 
that says: "Feb 25 1864 South Milford. We have this 
day agreed to make domet flannels as we have been doing 
for Moses Taft, he finding wool and warps. Aldrich & 
Cutler." Mr. Aldrich was then superintendent at Cary- 
ville. Soon after this the two men exchanged places, and 




TO 




THE MILLS 153 

the South Milford mill burned in 1868. Mr. Cutler was 
a just and kind employer, and a good citizen, well liked 
by all who knew him. In 1876 he began to have a cough, 
and on this account in 1878 he moved to Colorado Springs. 
There he bought a house and was planning to start a 
grocery business with his son-in-law, when he died. The 
Caryville mill property was assessed in 1879 at $33,150. 

Mr. Cutler's successor as superintendent was William 
A. McKean, who lived here from 1868 to 1899. In 
1885 Moses Taft's grandson Edgar Murdock bought 
some of the stock of Taft, McKean & Company. Addi- 
son E. Bullard bought his first stock in 1880. He had 
entered the office as bookkeeper in 1875. The other 
owners were then Moses Taft, Herbert Taft and 
William A. McKean. In 1889 the mill had seven sets of 
machinery. 

In 1899 the owners were Taft, Murdock and Bullard. 
When Mr. Murdock died the others bought his stock, 
and in 1904 they were incorporated with the name of 
the Taft Woolen Company. 

Of the present company Harold W. Bullard is pres- 
ident and superintendent, and Addison E. Bullard is 
treasurer, with a controlling interest. The capital is 
$220,000. There are nine pickers, fourteen sets of cards, 
one hundred and eighty-four narrow looms and three 
thousand four hundred and thirty-two spindles. Three 
steam boilers and a water wheel of seventy-five horse 
power were lately used, but in 1818 the mechanical 
power was changed to a five hundred horse power 
electric generator, with the equipment for buying as 
much more current from the Edison Company. The 
company owns thirty-eight tenements and employs two 
hundred and sixty persons. It made in 1918 two million 
three hundred and ninety thousand nine hundred and 



154 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

fourteen yards of Union Cassimeres and Satinets. During 
the recent war three hundred persons were at work, the 
mill was run at night, and it spun forty-three thousand one 
hundred and forty pounds of silk yarn for cartridge bags. 

The Red Mill 

Cotton or woolen manufacture was begun where the 
Red Mill stood, at the next water privilege on Charles 
River above the North Bellingham mill, probably in 1852. 
There had been a dam there for over fifty years, for Laban 
Bates sold Dr. John Corbett in 1783 two lots on Charles 
River with the right to erect a dam across it where the 
old sawmill dam was, and keep the water up to a certain 
stone. In 1800 Amos Ellis sold to David Jones the 
right to flow his land to make a pqnd, and a half acre 
for a mill yard. In 1832 for $450 Simeon Barney sold 
to Henry C. Lillie, a member of Adin Ballou's Hopedale 
Community and the superintendent of its manufacturing 
department, this property, inherited by his wife Mary 
from David Jones, with the flowage rights granted by 
Amos Ellis in 1800. In the same year Thompson Thayer 
sold to Dwight Colburn for $2250 about five acres with 
a saw and gristmill on the new road over Charles River 
and an acre on the south side of it, referring to the deed of 
Bates to Corbett in 1783. Thayer had bought a mortgage 
on the property some time before, and foreclosed it. 
The next year Lillie sold what he had bought of Barney 
to Colburn for $522. Mr. Colburn bought nine acres of 
Elias Cook the next year for $650, seventy acres the next 
year from Martin Rockwood for $1400, and sixty-seven 
acres the year after from David Foster for $1800. He 
manufactured woolens and once had sixty hands. 

Dwight Colburn was born in Dedham, 1798, and 



THE MILLS 155 

died in 1874. He worked in boyhood in a mill of his 
father's, and continued the business for himself in Holliston 
and at the Red Mill. He was engaged in boot manu- 
facture also, in Bellingham and Milford, where his sons 
were prominent in the same line. In religious convic- 
tions he was a follower of Adin Ballon. His grand- 
daughter has been the Bellingham Town Librarian for 
twelve years. 

Mr. Colburn owned the water privilege at Box 
Pond also for some years, and when he sold it finally in 
1839, he reserved the right of flowage for his mill below 
on the same river. Soon after the hard times in 1837 
he went to Milford, and in 1841 he sold to Bates & Arnold, 
owners of the North Bellingham mill, his stone cotton 
factory with all the property connected, for $2500. 
They owned both mills for twenty years, till 1860, when 
these went to their creditors, Newell & Daniels. 

The next year Newell & Daniels sold to F. B. Ray 
the Colburn privilege, reserving the lower Bates & Arnold 
cotton mill with the rights belonging to its pond and to 
the Beaver Pond water that flowed into it, for $2250. In 
1887 Joseph G. Ray sold to the Norfolk Woolen Company 
the Colburn privilege deeded by Dwight Colburn to Bates 
& Arnold in 1841, subject to a mortgage from F. B. Ray 
to J. G. Ray given in 1868, for $3000. 

Rags were prepared to make feltings here for many 
years. 

The South Milford Factory 

Dr. John Corbett asked the town for permission to 
build a dam and sawmill here in 1755, and was refused; the 
first mill in Mendon, then almost one hundred years old 
already, was on the same road hardly a mile away. But 
his great grandson, the third Dr. Scammell, sold to Pen- 



156 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

niman, Scammell & Company in 1812 for $1200 land 
on both sides of the turnpike from Mendon to Boston 
and on both sides of Charles River "for a manufactory 
now building" together with the right to flow his land, 
to keep the pond two feet higher than the sills of the 
factory. The firm consisted of eleven persons, with Maj, 
Samuel Penniman at its head. He was the son of Land- 
lord Samuel Penniman who kept the tavern opposite the 
Green Store at South Milford. It was licensed in 1778. 
He was born in 1717, had three wives, and died in 1807. 
Maj. Samuel Penniman was born in 1773 and died in 
1845. Besides his woolen business here he collected straw 
braid for miles around in all directions and made bonnets. 

"The Bellingham woolen and cotton manufactory" 
is mentioned in a history of this industry as one of the 
earliest to be incorporated by the State. This was done 
in 1814, and its capital was fixed at $15,000. Its agent 
in 1824 was Amos Hill. A sale of its shares in 1823 
indicated a value of $8000, and another in 1827 of $10,300. 

In 1831 the company mortgaged its stone factory, 
brick dyehouse, weaving and storehouse, carpenter shop, 
etc., with the land, to Armsby & Witherell of Boston for 
$3000, with an agreement to sell them three-fourths of 
all its products. The agent in 1836 was Mr. Holbrook. 
In 1837 the mill had two sets of machinery, and made 
twenty-four thousand yards annually, worth $62,000. 
Not long after the panic of that year, in 1840, Moses 
Whiting of Milton got a judgment aganst the company 
of $25,937. There were then four dwelling houses besides, 
the factory and other buildings. Mr. Whiting kept the 
mill nearly twenty years, and sold it in 1859 to Chilson 
& Fisk of Milford for $4000, who sold it again the next 
year to Thayer & Sweet of Hopkinton for $3000. In 
1864 they made domet flannels for Moses Taft, and he 



THE MILLS 157 

furnished wool and warps, Mr. Cutler was the agent 
here then, and he exchanged places with the Caryville 
agent, Mr. Aldrich. The mill was burned in 1868. In 
1881 W. A. McKean of Caryville bought the land and 
remaining houses for $3250. In 1893 he sold it to the 
Seaberg Manufacturing Company, but it was not used, 
and passed to Taft, Murdock & Bullard of the Caryville 
mill in 1895. 

The pond is called Factory Pond on old maps; it is 
full of water yet, the dam is good, and the three-story 
stone factory still stands with about half of its walls 
left and two good-sized elm trees towering up from within 
them, a remarkable ruin after fifty years. 

The Chilson Factory 

Besides the four textile mills on Charles River there 
was a small cotton factory at Hoag Lake on Peter's River, 
where the same family had lived since 1699, when William 
Chilson bought three cow common rights in the land 
bounded north by Charles River and south by Attleboro 
and the Pawtucket (Blackstone) River. Martin Chilson 
employed twelve persons here at one time, and when he 
drove a span of horses to Providence, the neighbors 
thought it must cost him as much as $2 a day. In 1828 
he gave a mortgage for $2500 on twenty-five acres with 
his "cotton factory mill," machinery, etc. The end of the 
story came in 1834, when he surrendered to Rila Scott and 
Paul Chilson as trustees for a number of creditors, two 
houses, two barns, the cotton house, blacksmith shop, 
shed, etc., with about ninety acres where he lived, with 
the water power and all his personal property, fire engine, 
two horses, chaise, broad cloths, calicoes, W. I. goods 
in his store, unfinished wagons, hay, tools, furniture, 



158 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

etc., together with the claim on the American Insurance 
Company for the fire in his factory. 

The Boot Business 

In 1793 Col. Ariel Bragg at Hay den Row began to 
make shoes with forty pounds of leather and four calf- 
skins. He made twenty-two pairs, carried them to 
Providence and sold them for $21.50. Many men took 
up the same work in towns in this vicinity. In 1828 a 
two-horse baggage wagon went from Milford to Boston 
twice a week; in 1874 six hundred persons produced a 
million dollars' worth there. The first boot factory at 
Medway Village was started by Clark Partridge in 1837. 

Edwin and William Fairbanks of Caryville learned 
the business at Hayden Row, and began it in a shop on 
their father's place in 1848. They built a shop midway 
between their own houses about 1851. After Edwin 
sold out to his brother and moved to Cambridge in 1864, 
William moved it to where the house of Charles Fisher 
is now, and built an addition making it one hundred and 
twenty feet long. About ninety men were employed, 
and made heavy boots for the army and for miners in the 
West. Work was given out to be done by men at their 
homes, and finished here. It went to all the surrounding 
towns. Seven thousand cases of twelve pairs each were 
produced in a year. Mr. Fairbanks died in 1875, a man 
liked well by all who knew him. Dr. Ide's son wrote of 
him, "His life among us has given emphatic proof that a 
good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." The 
boot shop was burned the next year after his death, 
with a loss estimated at $100,000, and the business was 
never begun here again. In 1864 more men in town 
worked on boots than in any other occupation. 



THE MILLS 159 

Dwight Colburn had a smaller boot shop at South 
Milford, William Paine one at Crooks' Corner, and there 
were others at the center of the town where a few neighbors 
worked together. 

Agricultural tools were made by Jerald O. Wilcox, 
1800-1891, who settled in Rakeville in 1848. He began 
to make rakes and forks at twenty-seven years of age, 
and his business came to include cards for woolen mills 
and many farming tools, and his customers were found 
in many countries. His product in one year was $18,000, 
and he employed about twenty men. 

Before Mr. Wilcox came to Rakeville it is said that 
revolving pistols were made near there by Benjamin 
and Barton B. Darling. There were six iron furnaces 
in New England in 1731, and guns were made in Boston 
in 1740. Joseph Fairbanks had a trip hammer shop 
at Caryville in 1813, where he probably used ore from 
the iron mine in Mine Woods between North Bellingham 
and the Center. As early as 1737 John Metcalf sold 
one- twentieth of one hundred acres in Bellingham, one- 
twentieth of the iron ore in it and one-twentieth of a 
mine on land of John Bartlet. Bog ore from the North 
Bellingham mine was used at Taunton for making loco- 
motives, but not later than 1860. A whetstone quarry 
near the Franklin line was worked for some years. About 
forty years ago Harvey Grant built rowboats in the 
south part of the town. Adams Barber, Jr., had a small 
tannery on Peter's River at Crooks' Corner. 



Chapter XI 
THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 

The town had voted to buy a pew in the meeting 
house for the use of the new minister, Rev. Abial Fisher, 
when he came, and his service began with good prospects 
of success. In 1822 he preached two Century Sermons 
which were pubHshed together, with this explanation: 
"When a century had passed after the incx)rporation 
of this town, a design was formed to exhibit the outlines 
of its history; but Providence prevented the execution." 
The first gives the history of the town, the second the 
lives of the four Baptist ministers. 

There had been some disagreement in the church 
about the singing, even in Mr. Alden's time, but no open 
quarrel. The organ which the town had put into the 
meeting house had improved the singing, but one of the 
deacons, a member of the choir, now objected to it. The 
record says: "A solemn sadness overspread the pious 
breast, and Zion decked herself in ashes." He insisted 
that the church should vote on his proposition that the 
Bible does not allow such an instrument of worship, and 
the vote was against him. He then began to stay away 
from the services, and was excluded from membership 
for continued absence. The clerk, one of the same 
family, was treated in the same way. 

Seven or eight years later the deacon who had led 
in the discipline of this one, followed the same path him- 
self. He first refused to pay his share of the expense of 

160 




(y .irncyh^ ^. 



1808—1891 



THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 161 

a singing school maintained by the church. The pastor 
rashly remarked that he considered it as bad to refuse to 
support public worship as to drink too much rum. He 
apologized for this, but the quarrel grew till eight members 
left the church, including another deacon. The one who 
began the trouble left town saying that "he would get 
out of Bellingham, something that the devil never did." 

Besides these troubles Mr. Fisher had others even 
greater. The Baptist Church never included more than 
a minority of the town, and probably his temperament 
was not well suited to his trying position here. In 
February, 1821, thirty- two persons signed an agreement 
to form a new religious society of the Congregational 
denomination, adopted rules and elected officers, and 
twenty-seven men subscribed $59 for their purpose. 

There was also a Universalist society which usually 
met in the south part of the town. About 1750, some of 
the South End people joined the Six Principle Baptist 
Church of Elder Josiah Cook in Cumberland, later 
became Universalists and seceded from it, and built a 
meeting house of their own, which remained unfinished. 
Stephen Metcalf's map of Bellingham in 1794 shows 
the "Universal Meeting House." It was later used 
by Wright Curtis for a tavern. The Universalist 
Church of Woonsocket was formed in 1829. 

In May 1821 the town chose a committee of nine men 
representing the three societies to report whether the meet- 
ing house was the town's property and who should use it. 
They found that it belonged to the inhabitants of Belling- 
ham and that "six years ago (before Mr. Fisher came) 
there was but one society in town, all meeting in the same 
house together for religious worship, attending on the 
same preaching although somewhat different in sentiments, 
yet social, friendly and liberal feelings were inculcated. 



162 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Now there are three societies all wishing to meet in the 
same house but not at the same time, nor hear the same 
preaching, no there is a retarder, uncharitable sentiments 
are inculcated, old friends are alienated, one fears another, 
hard feelings are excited, which renders it unpleasant, 
and shows the need of some compromise." They proposed 
that each society should use the house for a part of the 
time, till all are willing to meet together. The town 
accepted this report and voted that the Universalist 
and Congregational societies might use the house on the 
third and fourth Sundays of each month, and the Baptists 
on the other Sundays. 

The immediate cause of this action had come the 
month before, when Eliab Wight and John Bates, two 
members of the Baptist Society's prudential committee, 
on a Sunday, instead of getting the key from the selectmen, 
broke open the front door in order to hold their service. 
Besides this vote in town meeting, the town sued Wight 
and Bates for trespass. The case reached the Supreme 
Court in 1823 and the decision came the next year, 
nearly three years after the deed. The Baptists had to 
pay five dollars for trespass, one hundred and seventy- 
seven dollars for costs, and their expenses in all amounted 
to about six hundred dollars. The record of the case 
in the highest court fills about fifteen pages. The relation 
of the town and the church was so close and so little 
understood that even the witnesses from the ten men 
who built the building did not agree whether it belonged 
to tlie town or the Baptists. 

Meanwhile both Universalists and Congregation- 
alists were trying to establish themselves. The former 
had been meeting at the distant South End, but wanted 
to use the meeting house. By the advice of their leader 
and friend, Adin Ballon of Hopedale, they met now in 



THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 163 

the tavern opposite. In 1823 on the third Sunday in 
April, when the Universalists could use the building by 
the town's vote, Mr. Fisher preached from the steps to 
a crowd of Baptists in both forenoon and afternoon, 
while the others used the tavern. A month later one 
of the Baptists got into the building by a window on 
Saturday night, and unlocked both the entry door and 
the outside door. Mr. Foster, the tavern keeper, who 
had the key, dreamed three times that this was done, 
and then took his lantern, found the doors unlocked and 
put up a bar and a new lock. The Baptists held their 
morning service at the steps and the Universalists in 
the tavern as before. But at noon some of the Baptists 
told the other party that they might hold their afternoon 
service inside. When the selectmen opened the doors, 
Mr. Fisher with a crowd of his people rushed in. Mr. 
Ballon asked the selectmen not to open the inner door, 
and then asked Mr. Fisher to explain his action. He 
replied that the town had not a right to this house and 
could not grant its use to the Universalists. Some of 
his people proposed to retire, but he and others stayed. 
While Mr. Ballou and the selectmen walked up the main 
aisle, towards the pulpit, Mr. Fisher rushed up a side 
aisle, ran up the stairs and said: "Let us begin the worship 
of God by singing." His people began to sing and Mr. 
Ballou and his party went back to the tavern. He 
wrote a pamphlet about the contest, "The Furious Priest 
Reproved." In his autobiography he says: "I can see 
nothing to be ashamed of. I said, ' Let the doors be opened 
and if Mr. Fisher does not conduct himself decently, I 
certainly shall, and I will publish his doings to the world.' 
Mr. Fisher lost the respect of people generally." 

Adin Ballou, 1803-1890, of Cumberland, became a 
Universalist at the age of twenty, and had to leave both 



164 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

his church and his home on that account. He preached 
in Milford, Mendon and Hopedale till 1880, and was 
the head of the famous Hopedale Community, the "Prac- 
tical Christian Republic," which lasted from 1842 to 1856. 
He wrote many religious books and others, among them 
a large history of Milford. His preaching continued 
nearly sixty-nine years, and he served occasionally in 
all the towns of this vicinity. He married one thousand 
one hundred and ninety-nine couples and attended about 
two thousand funerals. He declaimed against slavery 
and war and was called "a restorationist, communist, 
spiritualist, pacifist, one of the most remarkable souls 
that New England has produced." 

In 1823 the Congregationalists voted to meet in 
common with the other societies till the lawsuit was settled. 
The next year they voted to unite with the Universalists 
and become a legal parish. By a special act the Legis- 
lature appointed a Justice to call a parish meeting, which 
was held in 1825. A committee reported to this meeting 
that "they might support a minister if united with con- 
cessions on a man who would lament the divisions that 
prevail in this place," and would suggest methods of 
"restoring peace and harmony in this distracted region. 
Such a man is not in this place at present, and we believe 
that the good of society now calls for a vote of the parish 
excluding the Rev. Abial Fisher from any privilege in 
this house as a preacher except by permission of this 
committee on an extraordinary occasion. We do not 
wish to exclude the Baptists from this house, but urge 
them to join us in procuring a minister of the kind 
described. If they do so, we think it would be more 
likely to settle a Baptist than a man of any other belief." 

The Baptists did not join them, but stood by their 
pastor. The others voted to call Rev. David Newman, 




y. 



H 
H 



THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 165 

and a year later to thank him, "as it is not probable 
that we shall be able to support him any longer." This 
was the end of the revived town church. 

Meanwhile the Baptists were busy. Mr. Fisher 
himself gave $70 from his $350 salary for a new Baptist 
meeting house, and was chairman of the building com- 
mittee. Subscriptions of from $5 to $150 were raised 
in town, and others throughout the State, and in January, 
1826, the contract for the building above the foundation 
was given for $2600 to Malachi and Appleton Bullard 
of Medway. Besides the subscriptions paid, $625 was 
received from the sale of pews. The church was ded- 
icated in November, to be held by trustees always to 
be Baptists. Mr. Fisher appeared to have a stroke of 
paralysis the next year, from which he recovered, but he 
left town soon after. His pastorate was stormy, but 
the church grew, in spite of its losses. In a time of great 
interest in 1821 and 1822 he baptized forty-five persons, 
and the members increased in his time from forty to 
ninety-six. 

After leaving Bellingham Mr. Fisher preached at West 
Boylston for three years, and then went to Webster in 
1832. He was considered there a good preacher and a 
good manager of church finances, but "expectations were 
disappointed," and he stayed only a year and a half. 
After serving several other churches he retired to a 
farm at West Boylston, where he died in 1862. 

In 1828 Rev. Calvin Newton began an active and 
successful ministry here of three years. He left to become 
a professor in Colby College, Maine. 

In 1834 Rev. Joseph T. Massey began his remarkable 
pastorate. He was born in Virginia in 1808, but grad- 
uated at the Newton Theological Seminary, and was 
ordained in Bellingham. After six years here he went 



166 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

back to that State for seven years, as a pastor and a 
missionary, but then he returned here again. During 
his absence Rev. Nehemiah G. Lovell was the pastor. 
The church increased from one hundred and forty-one 
to one hundred and seventy-four members, its largest 
number. He was a conscientious and scholarly man, 
rather sensitive in his disposition. He went from here 
to the Baptist Church at North Attleboro. For Mr. 
Massey the church built a parsonage. His second 
pastorate lasted till 1880, so that he served here in all 
thirty-nine years. The Sunday after the assassination 
of President Lincoln he happened to exchange pulpits 
with Dr. Ide of the West Parish, and he did not refer to 
the great event that every one was thinking of. As a 
Virginian he preferred not to talk publicly about the war. 
But besides being the longest, his ministry was doubtless 
one of the best liked in this town, as the people chose 
him for their highest offices so many times. He was 
town treasurer in 1859-1868, and even both treasurer and 
clerk in 1870-1879. He had only two children, who died 
young. He died in Virginia after preaching eleven j^ears 
more, in 1891 at the age of eighty-three. The Centre 
school was named for him when the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the church was observed in 1887, 
and sixty-three of the seventy-six members were present, 
Mr. Massey came, and gave the historical address. The 
names of eight pastors were commemorated. 

In 1881 Rev. Daniel A. Wade began a pastorate of 
nine years. Edwin F. Mitchell was here from 1890 to 
1892, and the church was altered and repaired then. 
Rev. Lucian Drury served from 1892 to 1897. At that 
time the church had sixty-six members. Then came an 
interval of supply by theological students, among them 
S. S. Huse, 1893, J. P. Berkley, 1897, and 1898, C. L. 



THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 167 

Chamberlain, 1909 and 1910. Mrs. Harriet Littlefield 
left the church $1000 in 1907. Rev. W. W. Wakeman 
was the next settled minister, from 1910 to 1916, when 
he went to Westwood. The church had then sixty- 
eight members. His successor was Rev. Adolph Aubert 
till this year, when Mrs. Emma J. C. Park came from 
North Reading to take his place. 



The Baptist Church at North Bellingham 

This church is seventy-two years old. The mill here 
was owned for twenty years by Bates & Arnold, and Mr. 
Bates was a deacon in the First Baptist Church of Provi- 
dence. In October, 1847, they dedicated a hall for use as 
a chapel, containing thirty-five pews, of which twenty-nine 
were let at once. Every year since then has been recorded, 
except the war time, 1862-1866. That firm failed then, and 
Hiram Whiting became Mr. Arnold's successor as superin- 
tendent of the mill in 1867. The next year the congrega- 
tion became a Baptist Church, duly recognized by a 
council of seven churches. Its preachers have usually been 
either students from the Newton Baptist Theological Sem- 
inary or the Baptist pastor from the center of the town, but 
in 1882 Rev. E. D. Bowers was settled here for two 
years. After the two years' service of Rev. L. J. Brace 
their present building was dedicated in 1908, costing 
about $4500. There were twenty-seven members in 
1917. 



168 history of bellingham 

The Catholic Church 

A history of the Catholic Church in New England 
states that there were probably less than two hundred 
Catholics in Massachusetts in 1780, seven hundred and 
twenty in Boston in 1810, and about a dozen in Milford 
in 1832. These went first to Boston and later to Woon- 
socket for marriages and baptisms, and to Blackstone 
for burials. The first mass in Milford was said in a house, 
1836, and about a dozen persons heard it. When the 
railroad from Framingham to Milford was built in 1848, 
many Irish laborers came, and the first Catholic Church in 
Milford was built then. 

In Bellingham before 1850 fourteen persons with 
apparently Irish names were married, six births were 
registered and five deaths. The record is of little value, 
because it is known to be incomplete. The Catholics of 
the north part of the town at first had to go to churches 
of their faith on the east, north, and west, at Franklin, 
Med way and Milford. 

The Franklin parish belonged to Attleborough till 
1877, but the people bought the old meeting house of Dr. 
Emmons in 1871, built in 1788 for $3514.86. It was now 
called St. Mary's Church. Only a few persons from our 
town went to Franklin and not for long. 

The Milford Church, where most of our Catholics 
went till about 1870, received a strong man as pastor 
in 1857, when Rev. Patrick Cuddihy came, from Berk- 
shire County, where he had built several churches. He was 
a priest for sixty-six years, and active till over ninety years 
old. His great parish included Hopkinton, Holliston, 
Ashland, Westborough, Upton and Medway, till 1866, 
when Ashland, Hopkinton and Westborough were set 
off from it. 

In Medway the Catholic people used to meet at the 



THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 169 

house of Walter Dewire in 1850, and in 1857 with John 
Kenney, when Father Cuddihy came to them. Their 
present church lot was bought in 1863, and it is said that 
"St. Clare's Parish" was organized in 1864. In 1870 
Holliston became an independent parish with Medway 
for its mission, and here was the church home of the 
Bellingham Catholics. Rev. Richard J. Quinlan was 
in charge, and he built the basement and most of the 
superstructure of the Medway church, which was first 
occupied in 1877. In 1885 Rev. M. T. Boylan came to 
the new parish of Medway, and the building, seating 
six hundred persons, was completed and dedicated the 
next year. He was educated at Montreal, ordained in 
1874, and came here from Cambridge. 

When he went away to Charlestown in 1888, Rev. 
Thomas B. Lowney took his place. He was born in 
1846, studied in Montreal, and served in Natick, Wey- 
mouth, Chelsea and Boston before coming to Medway. 
North Bellingham was his mission, and he built St. 
Brendan's Church here. In 1896 he went away to Marl- 
boro, and was succeeded in Medway by Rev. D. J. 
Keleher, Professor of Science at St. John's Seminary, 
till 1906. Father Dewire served there from 1906 to 
1910. Rev. Martin J. Lee has been the rector at Medway 
since then, and Rev. Joseph Reardon has been the curate 
since 1898. 

St. Brendan's Church, which still belongs to the Med- 
way parish, stands on the Pelatiah Smith estate, where for 
many years the Catholics who lived in the old tavern 
building used to meet on Sundays to say the rosary 
when they did not go to Milford. The first service was 
held in it September 8, 1895, when the building was 
consecrated to divine worship. It seats four hundred 
persons. 



170 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

St. Brendan was an abbot in Ireland who ruled over 
three thousand monks in several monasteries, and died 
1340 years ago. He lived where the first civilized men 
came to Ireland from Spain about a thousand years 
before Christ, and had a church on Brandon Mountain 
near the mouth of the River Shannon, where he loved 
to gaze out over the western sea. Soon after he was 
ordained by Bishop Ere, who died in the year 512, he 
prayed for some place of retirement, far away from men. 
He dreamed that an angel promised him a beautiful 
island, and soon a hermit came and told him with tears 
of excitement of one where he had been, "the land of 
promise of the Saints, where no night ever came, for 
Jesus Christ was the light thereof," and where people 
lived without food and drink. His heart was kindled 
by the tale, and with chosen monks he sailed away and 
was gone for seven years and saw whales, icebergs, vol- 
canoes and many other great marvels, and "things that 
are not and never were." This tale is found in ancient 
manuscripts in the Latin, French, English, Saxon, Flemish, 
Irish, Welsh, Breton and Scottish Gaelic languages, 
with many wonderful variations. St. Brendan's Island 
is found on most of the maps of the time of Columbus. 
In 1521 an expedition from the Canary Islands searched 
for it, and again in 1570, when over a hundred persons 
testified that they had seen it from a distance. In 1605 
another ship was sent in vain, and again another in 1721. 
The many reported appearances are now explained as 
the effects of mirage of the clouds upon the water. 

It may be that the Saint discovered far more than 
an island that no one else could find. Some of the man- 
uscripts say that after a five-year missionary voyage 
to islands towards the north, he started on his seven- 
year voyage in a larger ship, built for the purpose, with 



THE CHURCHES, 1819-1919 171 

sixty men. The date of this saiHng was observed for 
some centuries as a memorable event in the history of 
the church. He came to a land where he could find no 
limits in forty days' travel, and saw a large river flowing 
from east to west which he could not cross. This land 
has been called North America, and the river the Ohio. 
When Cortez came to Mexico in 1519, he found tradi- 
tions of a white man who had come across the ocean 
long ago from the northeast in a boat with "wings" 
like the sails of the Spaniards, who remained seven years 
and taught a humane religion. "The envious tooth of 
time" prevents our knowing surely whether "those 
happy plains of Paradise in that great western land" 
were in our own country, visited by St. Brendan more 
than nine centuries before Columbus came. 



Chapter XII 
TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 

In 1822 Mr. Fisher preached his two Century Ser- 
mons, and the town is fortunate in having this printed 
record of its first century. 

In 1823 Pelatiah Smith, the tavern keeper, carried 
a negro traveler to HolHston, who became sick there and 
was cared for at the town's expense. Mr. Smith refused 
to bring him back to Belhngham, and was sued by the 
town of Holhston, losing in fine and expenses $200. Our 
town allowed him $75 towards his loss. 

Many times in our history it has been proposed 
to change our boundaries, besides the long continued 
waverings in the Wrentham line and in the State line 
between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In 1730 
a part of Mendon was declined, and afterwards invited 
to join us in vain. The West Parish of Med way, incor- 
porated for church purposes only, could easily become 
a town by itself, as was proposed in 1807, and the people 
of the four towns to which it belonged were asked in 
1816 to state their reasons both for and against that 
change. The agitation for it increased for several years, 
and in 1824 thirty-two men of Medway, eleven of Holhs- 
ton, five of Franklin and eight of Bellingham raised $360 
to accomplish it. Bellingham voted against it fifty-eight 
to twelve, and the next year seventy-three to twelve. 
The town would lose an eighth of its land, a seventh of 
its valuation and more than a sixth of its inhabitants. 

172 



TOWN AFFAIRS. 1819-1919 173 

The petition was refused by the Legislature. The pro- 
posal was renewed about thirty years ago, and discussed 
in the local newspapers, but it interested only a few 
persons at that time. 

In 1825 Major Cook kept a tavern at the Centre, 
and Wright Curtis at the South End. 

In 1830 the town voted "to put . . . Esq and his 
wife out to any suitable lowest bidder," and to sue his son 
unless he paid for half of their support. Perhaps this 
sad case led to the purchase of the town farm the next 
year. Seth Holbrook received $3500 for one hundred 
and fifty-five acres, with buildings, four cows, oxen, etc. 
Twenty paupers went there, but only eight were left the 
next year. The farm sold butter, straw braid, calves, 
lambs, etc., amounting to $130, and $50 worth of wood. 
The net expense was a little over $400 a year. This 
same farm has been run by the town for eighty-eight 
years. 

In 1832 it was voted to do all town business annually 
at the March meeting only. 

Even as late as 1833 "cattle & horses shall not run 
at large on the highways." 

In 1835 the school bank money had probably been 
used to help pay for the town farm, but the school appro- 
priation was $600 and $25 "interest" on that fund. 
The town had lately changed its plan again to one general 
school committee instead of district committees. High- 
ways required $600 this year, besides $100 for bridges, 
one over Peter's River to be made of stone. 

In 1836 the town spent $250 on inoculation for small- 
pox, and built a temporary hospital at the town farm. 

In 1840 the town voted that the selectmen should 
visit all manufacturing establishments and remove any- 
thing injurious to health. The third story of the town 



174 HISTORY OF BELLTNGHAM 

house porch was finished off for an armory. The town 
has always taken a notable interest in military matters. 

The school report for 1841 showed nine schools with 
two hundred and seventy-three pupils in winter and two 
hundred and fifteen in summer. The teachers received 
their board in their districts, estimated at $6,75 for men 
and $5.20 for women a month, not a week, and $15.85 
a month salary for men and $7 for women besides. The 
school bank money was called $418. The wage for work 
on the highway was ten cents an hour. 

The south part of the town was immensely excited 
in 1842 by the strange civil war in Rhode Island. The 
charter of that colony, which was granted by King 
Charles II of England in 1663, gave the Colonial Assembly 
the right to admit as voters "such persons as they shall 
think fit." When the colonies became independent of 
British authority by the Revolution, instead of estab- 
lishing a new and more just government for the new 
State like the others, Rhode Island strangely kept the 
King's charter as its constitution. In colonial times 
only landowners could be voters as a matter of course, 
and this restriction still remained in force, so that in 
1840 of over twenty-two thousand adult males only 
nine thousand five hundred and ninety were freemen; 
Providence with twenty-three thousand people had only 
one thousand six hundred and ten voters, but Smith- 
field and Cumberland, including Woonsocket, with three 
thousand, had four hundred and fifty voters. Generally 
the north part of the State fared worse than the south, 
because all the men of the south part owned land, since 
they were farmers. Besides this injustice, towns were 
not represented in the Assembly in proportion to their 
population, but by an arbitrary rule, perhaps reasonable 
once, which had remained unchanged for nearly one 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 175 

hundred and fifty years. Providence County, the northern 
half of the State in area, with fifty-eight thousand 
seventy-three population against fifty-four thousand 
five hundred in the rest of the State, had only twenty- 
two of the seventy-two representatives in the Assembly. 
The country voters of the small towns whose power 
was thus out of all proportion to their number, had 
always prevented any reform, both in suffrage and in 
representation. For want of a proper constitution the 
people of Rhode Island had suffered more than two 
generations, from fundamental laws long ago outgrown 
and plainly unjust. 

In 1824 a constitution was presented to the voters 
which gave fair representation but still restricted voting 
to landowners; the city of Providence voted six hundred 
and fifty Yes to twenty-six No, Cumberland and Smith- 
field two hundred and sixty-eight Yes to thirty-two No, 
but the constitution was rejected by a vote in the State 
of two to one. In 1834 a constitutional convention con- 
trolled by conservatives adjourned finally for lack of a 
quorum. So after years of agitation and discouragement 
the suffrage party decided in 1841 to hold a State con- 
vention and adopt a constitution by popular vote without 
legislative authority, and then ask recognition from the 
United States government instead of that tyrannical 
State government, which had always been able to prevent 
its own reform. 

Although the legislature now called a constitutional 
convention, this People's Convention on January 12, 1842, 
without waiting for the report of the legal convention 
due a month later, declared that their own constitution 
had been adopted by thirteen thousand one hundred and 
sixty-four votes in an adult male population of twenty- 
three thousand. Both the voting and the counting of the 



176 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

votes were done without any authority, and the result 
was only the report of voluntary members of the suffrage 
party. The Providence Journal said that some of the 
votes in Cumberland v/ere cast by Massachusetts men. 
Though the legal convention was held and proposed 
reasonable reforms, the suffrage party had voted that 
when a majority of the citizens of a State, themselves 
United States citizens, should form and accept by vote 
a new constitution, it became the fundamental law of 
the State, and they now displayed a flag with the words : 
"The Constitution is adopted and shall be maintained." 
They began to practice military drill and to hold evening 
parades in Providence. 

In March the legislature met, and decided to post- 
pone attempts at reform in the present excitement, but 
considered it necessary to meet the threatened rebellion 
by a law to punish those who should accept office or 
act under the new People's Constitution. The landowners' 
party called themselves Law and Order Men, but the 
reformers called them Algerines, recalling the Barbary 
pirates; this therefore was called the Algerine Law. 

The Governor warned the people against supporting 
the rebels, and called on the President of the United 
States for military aid; it was not refused, but tempo- 
rarily withheld as not yet required. United States soldiers 
just returned from Mexico are said to have been quartered 
at Crooks' Tavern, but they did not actually enter Rhode 
Island. 

April 18 the suffrage party held a State election under 
their constitution, and chose for Governor Thomas W. 
Dorr, the man who had been their leader in the legislature 
for years. He organized his government the third of 
May in an unfinished building in Providence, after being 
escorted by a procession of about one thousand six hundred 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 177 

and fifty men, of whom four hundred and ninety-five were 
armed. His legislature adjourned to July, after repealing 
the Algerine Law and a few other votes; they were 
unwilling to seize the State House, as Dorr wished to 
have done. He now visited New York and even Wash- 
ington, and his story brought him considerable encour- 
agement, with some promises of men and arms, which 
were not kept. 

After his return to Providence at one o'clock in the 
morning of May 18, a signal gun was fired before his 
quarters, and he marched to the State arsenal with less 
than two hundred and fifty men. He called for its sur- 
render and tried in vain to fire a cannon. His men 
gradually deserted him and he retreated with thirty of 
them. At nine o'clock he escaped to Connecticut, and 
the Governor there refused to give him up when it was 
requested. The Governor of Rhode Island offered $1000 
for his capture. 

While he was outside the State again, he met sym- 
pathy and promises of support, and his party continued 
active, especially in the north part of the State. They 
began to hold meetings and parades again in Woonsocket, 
June 10, and tried to get cannon and powder into Prov- 
idence. June 23 the legislature authorized the Governor 
to proclaim martial law, and Dorr proclaimed the meeting 
of his legislature at Chepachet, only six miles from the 
Connecticut line, instead of at Providence, for June 25, 
and also summoned his troops to that place: "I hereby 
direct the military of this State who are in favor of the 
People's Constitution to repair forthwith to headquarters." 

Governor King now asked aid from President Tyler 
for the third time, which was refused "because the leg- 
islature though in session had not joined in the request." 
Martial law was finally declared on June 25, and about 



178 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

three thousand State troops marched towards Woonsocket 
and by different routes towards Chepachet. On Monday, 
June 27, Dorr found out what forces were approaching, 
and at 7 p.m., he wrote a note saying: "BeHeving that 
a majority of the People who voted for the Constitution 
are opposed to its support by mihtary means, I have 
directed that all the military here assembled be dis- 
missed." They scattered and he fled, and the Governor 
offered now $5000 for his capture. He escaped from the 
State, but returned later, was convicted under the Algerine 
law after a long trial, and finally pardoned. 

Martial law was enforced in Woonsocket for a week 
by nearly two hundred soldiers, and this region was 
in great excitement. A Boston news paper reported: 
"Rhode Island declares war on the United States." A 
little girl in Woonsocket was left alone in a house with 
her baby brother, and when she heard the terrifying cry, 
"The Algerines are coming," she hid the baby in a bureau 
drawer for some hours, but it was not harmed. It is 
said that two Rhode Island officers were sued by the 
State of Massachusetts for arresting Dorrites under a 
military order in Bellingham at Crooks' Tavern. 

The Massachusetts Governor's account of the affair 
is in his message to the Senate of September, 1842. The 
Adjutant General lent to the Rhode Island authorities 
on their urgent appeal on June 25, five hundred stand of 
arms, etc. On June 27 the Governor refused to allow him 
to lend more. Complaints of violence in Massachusetts 
came from only two places, Pawtucket and Bellingham. 
On Sunday, June 26, a brawl in Pawtucket, which then 
belonged to Massachusetts, caused the death of a Paw- 
tucket man on the Massachusetts end of the bridge, 
from a shot fired by a Rhode Island guard at the other 
end, and others were wounded. No militia company 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 179 

was present, and the bridge was wholly in Rhode Island. 
On June 29 the Pawtucket Selectmen thought that no 
Massachusetts troops were needed, and none were sent. 

On June 30 two men from Bellingham came to the 
Governor and reported that the night before an armed 
force broke into Crooks' Tavern and carried away four 
persons. The Adjutant General was sent to assure the 
town's people of protection, to find whether the Rhode 
Island authorities caused the trespass, and to visit 
Pawtucket. 

He found the Bellingham people assembled in a 
special town meeting, for which the warrant said: "To 
see what measures the Town will Take concerning a Mob 
or an armed force invading and breaking into the House 
of Jeremiah Crooks and Threatening and abusing said 
Crooks on the night of the 29th inst." They voted to 
choose a committee of three "to make arrangements 
for a preparation to defend the Inhabitants of said Town," 
and he promised them the State's protection and took 
one of them with him to the commanding officer at 
Woonsocket. This officer disclaimed all knowledge of 
the trespass and showed his written orders, which 
forbade him to cross the State line. The Adjutant 
General concluded that both parties in the invasion 
belonged to Rhode Island, and that there was no further 
danger of its repetition. He found quiet at Pawtucket, 
and the Rhode Island Governor disclaimed any intention 
of trespass. 

The bitterness of the quarrel reached across the 
State line, and for a long time after this people of any 
position and property in South Bellingham were called 
by their neighbors Algerines. 

In 1843 the Woonsocket Patriot, the first and greatest 
of the many local newspapers of adjoining towns read 



180 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

by Bellingham people, advertised : "A stage leaves Woon- 
socket at R. Smith's Hotel every morning except Sunday 
at 6 A. M. Monday, Wednesday and Friday it goes 
through Bellingham, Medway, Medfield and Dedham 
to Boston, at 12^ o'clock, the other days through Bell- 
ingham, Franklin, Rockville, Medfield, &c. Fare, $1." 
It was $1.50 in 1847, when the Providence and Worcester 
Railroad began operation. 

In 1843 a committee of three was chosen "to buy 
a stove and funnel to warm the town meeting house," 
and another to act as a board of health. This appears 
to be the first stove used; the West Parish people peti- 
tioned for one in their meeting house as early as 1820. 

In 1844 a committee was chosen "to suppress the 
sale of ardent spirits in town." A town liquor agent 
was chosen in 1855. 

In 1845, one hundred and sixty-three votes were cast 
for Representative, and James M. Freeman, the town 
clerk, received eighty-two and was declared elected for 
his second term. Another single ballot was found cast 
against him, and the Selectmen then declared his election 
lost. He petitioned the General Court, proved that two 
of the votes against him were illegal, and received his 
seat. 

In 1846 citizens petitioned the town to move towards 
getting a railroad here. 

The first board of auditors was chosen in 1849. 
Schools and streets both cost $800 that year. The 
school committee was three men, besides a prudential 
committee in each district. The town vacillated between 
having only one general committee, or district committees, 
or a combination of both. 

In 1851 it took ten ballots on three successive days 
to choose the town's representative in the Legislature. 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 181 

Edwin Fairbanks was elected by ninety-one votes against 
Fenner Cook, who had e*ghty-two. Mr. Cook was 
chosen on the second ballot the next year. 

In 1852 a committee was chosen to finish off the 
lower floor of the town house to be let for a boot shop, 
to appraise the pews on the upper floor, and to adapt 
it better to town business, but the changes were not made 
at that time. 

In 1853 "Voted to pay 25 cents for the head of an 
old crow, 123^^ for a young one, and 25 for a woodchuck. 
All other birds and beasts to run at large." 

The election of a representative in the Legislature 
this year was actually given up as a hopeless job, after 
six indecisive ballots on three separate days. The last 
result was Noah J. Arnold sixty-one, Jeremiah Crooks 
forty-two, and Martin Rockwood fifty. 

In 1855 a committee of three was chosen to investigate 
the subject of intemperance and "Root out all such 
existing evils as may be found in said Town." 

The school district which had included both Cary- 
ville and North Bellingham up to this time, was now 
divided, leaving nearly fifty children in the North Belling- 
ham school. The strong opposition to this change caused 
a laM^suit against the town, but it remained in effect till 1901. 

In 1856 Martin Rockwood was elected to the Leg- 
islature by one hundred and sixty-eight votes out of two 
hundred and thirty-nine. 

In 1860 it was voted to print an annual report of 
the town's business. Some of these reports are missing 
from that year to 1889, but since then the file is complete. 

Some of the votes of the Civil War time are as follows : 
1861, May 4, To raise $1000 for soldiers' aid under a 
committee of eleven persons. May 20, To borrow $2000 
for outfit for drill and for aid. 



182 HISTORY OF BELIJNGHAM 

1862, $100 to every soldier up to seventeen sworn in 
for this town, and after them $10 to every man who 
enlisted within ten days. August 23, $200 to every man. 
September, To borrow $5000 to pay volunteers for nine 
months. 

1863, To borrow not over $3000 for aid to soldiers' 
families. July, $5000 more. 

1864, $2000 more for State Aid. $186 to repay 
all subscribers for the volunteers in 1863. 

1865, $1000 for State Aid. 

1866, To repay all subscriptions made for volunteers 
with interest. $500 more for State Aid. 

The nine persons who held the office of selectmen 
in the years 1861-1865 were Alanson Bates, Elisha Chase, 
Calvin Fairbanks, A. H. Holbrook, D. J. Pickering, 
Savel Metcalf, Martin Rockwood, James A. Thayer and 
B. W. Woodbury. 

In 1863 the list of men in town subject to military 
duty had one hundred aad forty-five names, and thirty- 
one were then in service. The Massachusetts Records 
give the names of thirty-three soldiers from Bellingham 
as follows: 

Edward J. Adams W. O. Freeman Jos. W. Holbrook Asa Pickering 

Frederick Bates Patrick Gallagher Jairus Lawrence James W. Pickering 

Amos R. Bent John J. Gerstle Thomas McDowell Robert Post 

Charles E. Burr Joseph Gerstle Peter McKeen Geo. A. Richardson 

Howard Carlton T. G. Getchell George L. Metcalf George Swift 
Martin V. B. Cook Samuel D. Gregory John C. Metcalf John Terlin 

John V. Coombs Chas. P. Hancock Garrick F. Moore Elisha H. Town 

Pardon L. Crosby Handel Holbrook Joseph Osgood Willis Whiting 
James Davis 

There are ten names on the Soldiers' Monument, 
six of which are not on the list above: 

Thomas Carey C. Philip Hancock Joseph Osgood Calvin C. Thayer 
W. Ellis Cook Jos. W. Holbrook H. Perry Slocum Lewis E. Whitney 

Moses Drake Jairas Lawrence 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 183 

In 1892 when the town made its first appropriation 
for Memorial Day (of $50), thirty-six graves of Civil War 
soldiers were decorated, e'ghteen at the Centre and eleven 
at North Bellingham. Asa Partridge, my father, was 
included, for his service under the United States Christian 
Commission, The graves of his grandfather, Joseph, and 
great grandfather, Benjamin, are marked for Rev- 
olutionary Service. 

In 1905 sixteen survivors of the Civil War were 
reported here. 

The men now living in town who served in this war 
are Henry Otis Arnold, aged seventy-seven, Oliver Miette 
e'ghty-one, John Miner seventy-nine, and Henry W. Pick- 
ering seventy-eight. 

In 1864 the people of the Caryville School District 
made a public subscription of over $30 to extend the 
school term there. 

The militia list of 1864 contained one hundred and 
forty-seven names; fifty were farmers, fifty-one worked 
on boots, seventeen were mill hands and mechanics, and 
the rest were scattered among many occupations. 

In January, 1867, there was a great snowstorm; 
Hollis Metcalf wrote that no steam cars ran for a week. 

Land was bought to enlarge the town house lot in 
1870, making more room for the school yard, and $3000 
was voted for a new building in 1873. 

In 1875 a lockup for tramps had to be built; it was 
well filled for some years, and then became entirely 
unnecessary. 

The justices of the peace in this town in 1876 were 
Andrew A. Bates, Nathan A. Cook, Dr. Roland Hammond, 
David Lawrence and Savel Metcalf. 

The streets were named and their names were put up 
in 1878. 



184 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

In 1880 George H. Partridge of Medway was stabbed 
in a drunken brawl at North Bellingham, and Frank 
and Amos T. Adams were sentenced to the State prison. 

The town voted against allowing women to be voters 
and town officers in 1881. In the same year a motion 
to build a union schoolhouse for Caryville and North 
Bellingham was lost by a vote of forty-eight to fifty-one. 
$3000 for a building at North Bellingham was voted 
instead. 

In 1882 Charles O. Drake was killed by a runaway'- 
horse. 

The town's appropriations in 1885 were $1800 for 
schools, for the poor $1500, highways $900, bridges $250, 
debt $800, interest $600, town buildings $450, town 
officers $400, incidentals $300, and for printing, guide 
boards and school incidentals $50 each. The eight school 
buildings were called worth $10,500. 

In 1889 a permanent committee of three, one chosen 
each year, was formed to manage the cemetery fund 
and care for the cemeteries. Electric cars began to run 
this year by the Four Corners between Franklin and 
Woonsocket. 

The Bellingham Grange of the Patrons of Hus- 
bandry was formed in 1891. It has the use of a good 
dining room in the town house, and it has often held an 
agricultural exhibition in the fall, which was a pleasant 
old-home day for many of our present and former citizens. 

In 1892 the first appropriation of $50 for Memorial 
Day was made; it has been continued ever since. 

Water pipes from Woonsocket were laid on Center 
Street the next year. 

In 1894 the town accepted the State library act, 
and voted to join a district to employ a Superintendent 
of Schools, and to build a two-room schoolhouse at Crooks' 



TOWN AFFAIRS, 1819-1919 185 

Corner for $3000 the next year. The town high school 
held its first graduation in 1896, but after a few years the 
high school pupils here were sent away to other towns. 

Electric cars began to run from Caryville to Milford 
and Medway in 1897, and two years later from Caryville 
to Four Corners, and from Four Corners by Bellingham 
Centre to Milford. 

The number of our men who engaged in the Spanish 
War in 1898 is not exactly known; there were five survivors 
of it here in 1905, 

In 1900 a State highway was begun at Crooks' 
Corner, running towards the Center. The town made 
a liberal appropriation for its old record books this year, 
and they are in good condition. 

$10,000 was voted in 1901 to be repaid $500 annually, 
to build a schoolhouse for North Bellingham and Cary- 
ville, and $3000 to add two rooms to the Center building. 

The telephone reached as far as Scott Hill from 
Woonsocket in 1904, and gas pipes from that city were 
laid in Center Street the next year. 

The South Bellingham schoolhouse was finished in 
1906; it had cost $7500. 

Electric lights were brought to Caryville and North 
Bellingham in 1907, and to the South End the next year. 

Walter II. Thayer, the present town treasurer, was 
first chosen in 1909. 

In 1910 $3000 was spent to fit up the lower floor of 
the town house for the town offices, a vault for records, 
dining room, etc. 

Charles Burr, who lived alone at Box Pond, was 
found apparently murdered for money in 1915; no clue 
to the mystery has been found. 

In May, 1919, two persons from neighboring towns 
in an automobile were killed by a railroad train, near Bel- 



186 



HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 



lingham Junction and Mrs. Elizabeth Foley was killed 
at the North Bellingham crossing in the same month. 

For the World War our town subscribed more than 
its quota of bonds each time. 



Bellingham Honor Roll 
Of these seventy-five men the forty whose names are 
marked A crossed the ocean. 



John J. Allen, Aviation (A) 

William H. Allison (A) 

Herbert B. Arnold, Regular Army (A) 

Samuel W. Baader, Artillery (A) 

George Baxter (A) 

John Baxter (A) 

Norman Baxter 

Albert Bernier, Navy (A) 

Josaphat O. Bernier (A) 

Wilfred G. Bernier, Signal Corps (A) 

Wilfred Boiteau 

Alexander W. Brown, Artillery 

James N. Colt 

Harland Cook 

Andor DeJony (A) 

Albert Deschacht (A) 

Francis P. Diggins (A) 

Patrick Dore, Naval Reserve 

Tancred Dorval, Jr., Artillery 

Joseph A. Farley 

Henry Fergelewski (A) 

Bernard J. Fitzpatrick (A) 

Daniel J. Fitzpatrick (A) 

Joseph M. Flannagan, Navy (A) 

William V. Flannagan (A) 

Cornelius J. Foley (A) 

Fred D. Foley 

William M. Foley, Navy 

Raymond Fontaine (A) 

Frank T. Hoar, Artillery (A) 

Cecil E. Howarth (A) 

Frederick W. Hunter, Navy 

Robert H. Hunter, Aviation 

Michael J. Kennedy, Naval Reserve 

James W. Kennelly, Aviation (A) 

J. Waldo Kennelly 

Patrick H. Kiernan, Navy 

Honorius Laudreville 



Henry Lemire 

Frederick E. Lipsett (A) 

William R. Mann (A) 

John E. McMahon 

William M. McMahon, Naval Reserve 

George M. Melrose, Aviation 

Robert B. Melrose 

Hervie E. Miette (A) 

Joseph E. Miner (A) 

Matthew F. Mooney (A) 

John J. Murphy 

Ernest A. Nash (A) 

Albert Ober 

William P. O'Connell 

Emil Paquin 

Joseph A. Paquin, Aviation 

Cyrille Parenteau, Jr. (A) 

Aliksander Piascik (A) 

Edmund Rattier (A) 

Frank Rattier (A) 

Joseph Reith 

Arthur A. Rhodes, Artillery 

Joseph Rivard 

Eugenio Rotatori (A) 

Saverio Rotatori (A) 

Harold G. Sackett, Naval Reserve 

Daniel J. Sheehey 

Hugh F. Smith (A) 

John J. Smith (A) 

Michael J. Smith 

William A. Spear 

Edward L. Spencer, *Pneumonia 

Joseph Tessier (A) 

Joseph A. Thibedeau (A) 

William J. Walsh, Naval Reserve 

Ralph G. White. Navy (A) 

William F. Wright (A) 



\ 




GOVERNOR JOHN M. THAYER, 1820—1905 



Chapter XIII 
PERSONS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 

Besides those already mentioned, there are other 
persons of whom some account should be given. 

Gen. Eliakim Adams, 1756-1807, was one of our 
many Revolutionary soldiers. He was born and lived 
for some years in Holliston. April 19, 1775, he served 
as a private, and in April, 1777. In August of that 
year he was a sergeant, and he served in 1780. After 
the war he was active in the militia. In 1795 in the list 
of members of the General Court he is a major from 
Medway, and again the next year a colonel. He wrote 
in his resignation from the militia in 1803: "Having 
served three years as a Brigadier General, and two and 
twenty years as a Militia Officer without any compensa- 
tion, and am upward of forty years of age, I am desirous 
of being discharged." He is commemorated by a granite 
monument in front of the tomb of the North Bellingham 
cemetery. 

Captain Laban Adams, 1785-1849, was born in 
West Medway and lived on Maple Street at North 
Bellingham. He had seven children born there, and 
one in Medway. He kept a tavern in Medway, and 
then the Washington Coffee House and the Lamb Tavern 
in Boston. This house was mentioned in 1746, and 
the first coach to Providence started here in 1767. He 
was the landlord in 1822, when a large brick addition 
was built, and until 1825. In 1830 he bought it, and 

187 



188 HISTORY OF BELIJNGHAM 

managed it for eight years, when he leased it to another 
man for seven years. Then he returned again, and 
built a new hotel on the same spot, which he opened in 
1846 as the Adams House, a name unchanged since then. 

William T. Adams, 1822-1897, was born at North 
Bellingham, the son of Capt. Laban Adams. He was 
the pioneer story writer for young people, famous under 
the name of Oliver Optic. At seventy-three years of age 
he had written one hur died and twenty-six books and over 
a thousand short stories. Two million copies of his books 
were sold. For his first one he received $37.50. He is 
remembered as reading aloud some of his stories in the 
Hall at North Bellingham, and as a schoolboy there, while 
his family was living in Medway. 

He traveled much to find material for his stories, 
and he was careful to make them useful as well as enter- 
taining. He was a member of the school committee 
in Dorchester where he lived, and was a useful citizen 
there. 

John Albee, 1823-1915, was the literary man of the 
town. His father was a farmer, who died when John 
was a little boy. He began to work at twelve years of age 
as a farmer's boy, clerk, etc., but was sent away later 
to school and college, and graduated at the Harvard 
Divinity School in 1858. While he was a teacher and a 
preacher in Western Massachusetts he was married, and 
his wife, who was a nurse for love of the work, established 
a remarkable charitable hospital in Boston. They had 
a beautiful home on the seashore at Newcastle, N. H., 
where he wrote books of poetry and imagination. He 
was one of the chief supporters of the Concord School 
of Philosophy, lectured there, and edited the Portsmouth, 
N. H., daily paper awhile. 

His second wife was a writer also, and their home 



PERSONS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 189 

was at Tamworth, N. H. His "Confessions of Boyhood" 
is an imaginative autobiography, with pictures of life 
in BeHingham long ago. His home was not far from 
the Scammel house at South Milford, and he never 
lived in a village here. Here are a few sentences from 
that book. 

"The traveller, journeying through the highways 
of BeHingham, would see nothing to attract his attention 
or interest. It has no monuments, ruins nor historic 
associations; no mountain, nor hill even. The Charles 
River has travelled so little way from its source as hardly 
yet to be a river. The soil is stony and pays back not 
much more than is put into it. The fine forests of white 
oak have been mostly reduced to ashes. Scrub oak and 
gray birch have taken their places, but do not fill them. 

No eminent sons liave yet remembered the town 
with noble benefactions. It has had no poet and no 
mention in literature. The reporters pass it by. It is 
not even a suburb, last sad fate of many towns and villages. 
This is one of the reasons for my attachment — its 
unchangeableness, its entire satisfaction of sentiment. 

Fortunate is the town with a river flowing through 
its whole length and boys and girls to accompany its 
unhasting waters. It was made for them, also for the 
little fishes and the white-scented lilies. For a few 
hours of the day the great floats of the mill wheel drank 
of it, sending it onward in the only agitation it ever per- 
mitted itself. Then there was Bear Hill, though never 
a bear in the oldest memory, yet the name was ominous 
to children. 

Before cities and factories had begun to stir the 
ambition and attract the young by opportunities for 
fortune and fame, BeHingham was the home of an intelli- 
gent, liberty-loving people. It was the best place in 
the world to be born in. I thank Heaven for a town 
removed from tlie track of progress, uninvaded by summer 



190 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

visitors and business enterprises; land left sacred to its 
native inhabitants, a sluggish stream, unprofitable earth, 
huckleberry bushes and the imagination. 

It grieves me that the Charles has never been cel- 
ebrated in verse or prose, but by one short song of Long- 
fellow, while the Concord, which rises on the same 
watershed and almost from the same spring, has had 
several famous poets and is historic in Revolutionary 
annals. Our stream wanders a hundred miles in its 
efforts to find the ocean, and it never has any headlong 
haste to arrive. It saunters like a schoolboy and stops 
to visit a thousand recesses and indentations of upland 
and meadow. It stays for a cow to drink, or an alder 
to root itself in the bank, or to explore a swamp, and it 
rather wriggles than runs through its eighteen townships. 
It is likely to stop at any one of them and give up the 
effort to reach the sea. For my part I wish it had, and 
actually, as in my memory and fancy, ended at the 
outermost shores of Bellingham." 

Nathan A. Cook, 1823-1896, was a descendant of 
the pioneer Nicholas Cook. His father, Nahum, was 
for some years the only Democrat in town. Nathan 
taught school seventeen winters, and was a justice of the 
peace for thirty years. He settled many estates and was 
a member of the Legislature in 1882. 

Hamlet Barber,1785-1870, lived at South Milford, 
and was a popular dancing master. Later in life he 
became a strict Baptist. He was postmaster of Bell- 
ingham in 1829-1831. 

George W. Bosworth, D.D., 1818-1888, belonged 
to an old Bellingham family, and joined the Baptist 
Church here at thirteen years of age. He graduated at 
Colby College and at Newton Theological Seminary in 
1841. He was the first pastor of a new Baptist Church 
at Medford for five years, at South Boston nine years, 



PERSONS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 191 

Portland ten, Lawrence four, and Haverhill ten. From 
1852 to 1856 and again from 1879 to his death, he was 
the Secretary of the Massachusetts Baptist Convention, 
the official head of the denomination in the State. 

Horace A. Brown, 1867-1918, had come from Maine 
to Milford when a boy, and he graduated at the Milford 
High School in 1885. After working in a shoe factory 
and a dry goods store, he entered the Home National 
Bank, where he remained for thirty years, and became its 
cashier. After his marriage in 1897, his home was in 
Caryville. He served the town on the school committee 
and was the leader in building the three new schoolhouses, 
the largest undertakings of our town in recent years. 

Jeremiah Crooks, 1791-1864, came from Maine to 
live with his grandfather, Cornelius Darling, when he 
was thii teen years old. He came on a sailing vessel, and 
walked from Boston to Bellingham, spending one night in 
Medway on the way. He taught school, was a surveyor, 
and drove a stage to Providence. In 1834 he bought the 
tavern of Wright Curtis, and kept it for about thirty 
years. He was a militia captain and the town's Repre- 
sentative at the General Court in 1843. The name 
Crooks' Corner remains to us from his time. 

Rufus G. Fairbanks, 1859-1907, was the son of 
William Fairbanks, the boot manufacturer. He studied 
at an academy and at Boston University Law School. 
He then worked and traveled for an educational paper 
till 1891, when he was admitted to the bar. His home 
was built at West Medway, where he was a trial justice. 
He was very active as a Republican, an Odd Fellow and 
a Mason, and no one did more than he for the Fairbanks 
Family Association. He wrote the chapter on Bellingham 
in Hurd's "History of Norfolk County," published in 
1884. 



192 HISTORY OF BEliLINGHAM 

Cornelius Jones, 1727-1803, was the grandson of 
Elder John Jones of Mendon, the first man to use the 
water power at Hopedale. His father was an early- 
settler in Bellingham, and he graduated at Harvard 
College in 1752. He was ordained in a barn in town 
No. 3 in Berkshire County, later called Sandisfield , in 
1757, and settled over its first church. He married a 
daughter of Thomas Sanford, living there, but left the 
place after five years on account of "a difficulty" in 
the church, and bought ten thousand acres of wild land 
near the present Fitchburg Tunnel, where he settled. He 
preached sometimes, but never had a church again. He 
became rich and was very patriotic and commanded the 
militia of the town of Rowe at the capture of Burgoyne. 
One of his sons was killed in a skirmish with Indians. 
His wife wrote to her sister in Newport that they feared 
losing their poor house in the woods by the attacks of 
Indians as much as the Newport sister feared the coming 
of the British fleet. Mr. Jones had just got a drove 
of cattle safely to the American camp, but lost his horse. 
In 1780 the resolute pioneer sold all his land and moved 
again, this time to a place near Whitehall, N. Y., where 
he ended his days. 

John Metcalf, 1704-1791, bought part of Rawson's 
Farm in Caryville in 1735. He was the son of John of 
Dedham who had three wives and eighleen children, the 
son of Deacon Jonathan, the son of Michael, the first Met- 
calf in this country, who came in 1637. He 'had been a 
weaver at Norwich, England, was persecuted there, and 
came with his wife, nine children and a servant. He 
was the first school teacher and one of the selectmen at 
Dedham, where he died in 1639. His estate was 364£ 
18 s. 5 d. 

The second John had a large book, now in the library 



PERSONS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 193 

of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in which he 
Avrote all sorts of memoranda, some of which are valuable. 

"I John Metcalf Junr of Dedham on the 17 of May 
1727 was with my Grandfather Deacon Jonathan Met- 
calf then on his Death Bed Being in the 77th year of 
his age & I in the 23d year of my age ... I said to my 
Grandfather many have been wont to Set highly by the 
Blessing of their aged Relations, I Did So, I would be 
Glad if You would give me Yours, I Desire You too. he 
Said my Blessing is But a Poor thing & then said The 
God of Abraham . . . &c. the foregoing is writ down 
Directly after it was Spoken Transcribed from the 
original writing Mar 8 1777 John Metcalf." 

He had thirteen children, and his wife died in 1754. 
The next winter he wrote this letter to the widow in 
Dedham who became his second wife. 

''Bellingham Jan 31 1755 

''Mrs. Abigail Fisher 

"Madam You will Excuse my taking up Your Precious 
time to read any thing from one so remote as I am. You 
have it, & it is at Your Pleasure to read it or let it alone 
mean as it is. The last night I got to Medfield by Dark 
the last half hour rained hard I staid there about an 
Hour Set out when the rain abated the first 5 miles very 
Dark my horse rushed my knee against the fence but the 
smart soon over Several times the limbs gentely brushed 
my face It rained hard again about half an hour the moon 
rises about 9 I got home found my family all well except 
Stephen (24 years old) who has a fit of the fever every 
Day let him & J come into remembrance with you in 
your best Hours and will You bear me Company in my 
meditations as I came home The night being so dark I 
cannot see my horses head nor my hand No Person nigh 



194 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

me If my Horse should throw me to afford me any help 
how mellancolly the seen all Dark Solitary and Gloomy, 
but am I alone tho my acquaintance & You my friend 
are at a Distance and no Human Creature near me Yet 
tis Probable that thousands of spiritual beings are moving 
unseen about the Earth in the Dark as well as light 
Perhaps there may be Some of those invisible beings 
very near unto me in this Gloom. 

I have wrote only a small sketch of my meditations 
they mought tire you my Dear I subscribe my Self Among 
the many that have Paid You their Regards the Most 
Unworthy. 

Yet Your Truest Friend 

and Loving 

Humble Servant 

There are several notes in regard to Quakers, and 
he had a strong leaning towards their views, though he 
brought a letter from the Dedham Church to the town 
church of Bellingham in 1738, given in Chapter VI. 

"All worshiping God without the Imediate Influence 
of the Holy Spirit of God is vaine & Hipocrisie Every 
Congregation that forbids all that have anything Revealed 
to them to Preach & Pray, & Confines it to one of the 
Congregation, All Such Worship is after the Doctrines 
of men and not according to the Commandments of the 
Lord. All Worship Appointed by men without Divine 
athority is Idolatrous & offering strange fire Therefore 
I cannot Joyne with Such in their Worship. 

1778 John Metcalf." 



PERSONS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 195 

"Jan 5 1778 Weighed my Silver Plate 9£ 16 s 8d" 

"1782 Books read from the library in Medway in 
which I have a Right Returned 1st Thursday in March and 
every 3 months Harmonic of O & New Tests. Thomas 
Hutchinson's History of New England, Peter the Grate, 
Burnet History of the Reformation, Oliver Cromwell, 
History of Charles V." 

By his will his books were divided into eleven parts 
to be given to his grandson John and ten children. His 
son Stephen received all his land in Bellingham. 

After his death his widow, Abigail, who had no chil- 
dren of her own, continued to live in his house with his son 
Stephen, the Judge. This house had then a long ell 
behind it, as appears from her petition to the Judge of 
Probate in 1794: 

"I have been a faithful wife near 36 years to John 
Metcalf. I live in a large house Eight rooms on the 
ground three cellars and plenty of chambers. I sleep 
near 50 feet from any human being and I need help. 
The Squire's daughter is a weakly woman without time 
or skill to nurse an Old Lady. I have given my husband's 
five daughters and one granddaughter all my gold and 
most of my wearing apparel. I entreat of the Judge to 
give me power to draw 20 £ of my husband's furniture 
and to give me one third of the estate. Abigail Metcalf." 

Stephen Metcalf, 1731-1800, was the most prom- 
inent citizen of the town and has often been mentioned 
already. He married Hepzibah Adams, the grand- 
daughter of Thomas Sanford, and was my great great 
grandfather. The value of his land within the town 
was estimated at $7377. Besides the care of his farm, 
he was a surveyor and a lawyer. He was a trial justice 
in this district for many years, and then a judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas for this county. He was often 



196 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

engaged in county affairs, and besides his seven years 
at the General Court as our Representative he was a 
senator nine years and for two years a member of the 
Governor's Council. 

1731 — 1800 



Caroline F. Orne, 1818, was descended from Simon 
Stowe who came to Watertown in 1635, and her childhood 
home stood where Mt. Auburn Cemetery is now. She 
was the librarian of the Cambridge Public Library for 
seventeen years, and she wrote stories and poems of early 
New England history. Her sister was the wife of Dr. 
Nelson, and she herself was a member of the Bellingham 
Church for many years. 

Joseph M. Rock wood, 1818-1910, belonged to a 
family that had lived in Bellingham for four generations. 
His sister married Joseph Ray. He graduated at Dart- 
mouth College at nineteen years of age, and then at 
Newton Theological Seminary in 1841. He was a Baptist 
pastor at Rutland, Vt., eight years, Belchertown six, 
Grafton seven, and Middlefield for twenty-five years. 
In 1851 he was a member of the Massachusetts Consti- 
tutional Convention, went to the General Court in 1864, 
and served under the United States Christian Comm'ssion 
in the Civil War. He was married for sixty-five years, 
and had seven children. In 1890 he retired, and he 
died at the age of ninety-two, the oldest graduate of both 
his college and his seminary. 

Alexander Scammel, 1747-1781, was the son of Dr. 
Samuel L. Scammel of South Milford, who married the 



PERSONS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 197 

daughter of Dr. Corbett. He was fitted for college by 
Rev. Amariali Frost of Milford, and graduated at Harvard 
in 1769. He was a school teacher in Plymouth and King- 
ston and then went to New Hampshire, where he did 
surveying and then began to study law with General 
Sullivan. He helped him capture a fort near Portsmouth, 
ammunition from which was used at Bunker Hill. They 
both went to Cambridge, where Scammel served as a 
major in 1776. The next year he commanded the first 
New Hampshire regiment at Ticonderoga, and was 
wounded in the first fight with Burgoyne. The next 
winter he became Adjutant General of the American 
army, and he held that office till 1781. When Major 
Andre was executed for a spy, Scammel was the officer 
of the day. In 1781 at his own request he was given 
command of the light infantry of the army, composed 
of parts of several regiments. It was used in the vicinity 
of New York, and then in Virginia with the French 
army. During the siege of Yorktown he went out with 
a reconnoitering party at daybreak, was surprised and 
mortally injured. Cornwallis allowed him to be carried 
to Williamsburg, where he died. He was a man six feet 
two inches tall, intelligent, honorable and brave. He 
had the full confidence of General Washington, whose 
dignity it was noticed often kept other officers at a dis- 
tance. His character and his fate impressed both his 
associates and the whole country, and he is one of the 
oflficers in the painting of Burgoyne's surrender in the 
rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. 

This epitaph was written at the time: 
" Though no kind angel glanced aside the ball. 

Nor fed'ral arms pour'd vengeance for his fall; 

Brave Scammel's fame, to distant regions known. 

Shall last beyond this monumental stone. 



198 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Which conq'ring armies, from their toils returned, 
Rear'd to his glory, while his fate they mourned." 
Elijah B. Stowe, 1845-1909, of Milbury, came to 
this town after his marriage in 1869. He kept the village 
store at Caryville and was station agent and postmaster 
for forty years. He held town offices, and was a member 
of the Legislature in 1889. Church choirs were led by 
him in West Medway and in two of the Milford churches, 
and he belonged to the Worcester Music Festival Chorus 
for twenty- three years. He managed many concerts 
and oratorios in Milford, twelve of them annually, with 
the aid of the best singers to be had and the Boston 
Symphony Orchestra. By this work in conducting 
choirs, training choruses and managing concerts he 
raised the musical standards of this whole region, and 
became a public benefactor. His public service is 
commemorated by a bronze tablet in the Milford 
Congregational Church. 

John M. Thayer, 1820-1905, had both his grand- 
fathers in the Revolutionary Army. His home was 
very near the site of the first church, the actual center 
of the town. He fitted for college with two of the Bell- 
ingham pastors, Mr. Newton and Mr. Massey, and 
graduated at Brown University in 1841. After studying 
law in Worcester, he made a six weeks' journey to Omaha 
in 1854, a few months after the territory was organized. 
Here he was admitted to the bar, but began as a farmer 
and pioneer, built the first frame house and became 
interested in politics. He became a Republican in 1857. 
For six years he was an Indian fighter. The territorial 
legislature made him a brigadier general of its troops, 
and then a major general till the Civil War. Twice 
he dealt with an uprising of all the Pawnees, who had 
fifteen hundred warriors, the second time in 1859. 




E. B. STOWE, 1845—1909 



PERSONS OF PUBDIC INTEREST 199 

In 1860 he raised a full regiment of one thousand 
Nebraska men in a population of twenty-e'ght thousand 
eight hundred and forty-one, and entered the war as 
their colonel. He served as brigadier general of vol- 
unteers with Grant and Sherman, and resigned as a 
major general in July, 1865. He was elected one of the 
first United States Senators from Nebraska the same 
year, and served six years. In 1875 President Grant 
appointed him Governor of Wyoming, where he spent 
four years. He was elected Governor of Nebraska for 
two terms, and held office for five years. In 1892 he 
retired to private life, and died in 1906. 

Henry A. Whitney, 1842-1915, was the man of our 
time who knew the most about the history of the town. 
He had been constable, tree warden, cemetery trustee, 
selectman five years, promoter of the town library and 
its trustee, Representative at the General Court in 1904, 
and town clerk, 1883-1915. As early as 1912 he proposed 
a small annual appropriation for a town history at the 
time of this two hundredth anniversary. 

Besides the two Corbets and the three Scammels 
several other doctors have lived in this town. 

Dr. S. Atwood was on the school committee in 1833. 

Dr. W. H. Clark, who lived here a few years, was 
killed on the railroad at South Milford in 1902. 

Dr. Collins was here some time before 1850. 

Dr. Roland Hammond was on the school committee 
for several years from 1872, and was town clerk from 
1890 to 1892. 

Dr. Amos Holbrook, 1754-1842, was "one of the 
most eminent medical men of the county during his 
whole practice. He had not a college education, but 
this deficiency was more than made up by his experience 
as an army surgeon and by residence and study in France." 



200 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

He went to live in Milton, and "he had the best practice 
in that town and Dorchester." 

Dr. Timothy Merriam was here some time before 1850. 

Dr. George Nelson, 1797-1875, lived in the house 
at the top of the hill at Bellingham Center. 

Dr. N. W. Sanborn left town after a few years in 
1895, and returned for a while in 1903. 

Dr. S. A. Stanley was on the school committee in 1838. 

Dr. Jonathan Thayer, 1717 to about 1765, is said 
to have stood well in his profession. 

Dr. Daniel Thurber, 1768-1836, of Rehoboth, studied 
medicine with the doctor of his own town for three years, 
and then began to practice at the age of twenty-one at 
South Milford. His house was in Mendon most of the 
time, but for two years he lived in Bellingham, and rep- 
resented it at the General Court in 1806 and 1807, as he 
did Mendon for many j'^ears. He won many friends, and 
was the busiest man of his profession in this vicinity. 
He was very firm, in both principles and practice. His 
advice was often asked, and both Harvard and Brown 
Universities gave him an honorary degree in medicine. 
The Thurber Medical Association of Milford and vicinity 
is named for him. He wrote a little chemistry for begin- 
ners, in verse, and many epitaphs and poems for July 4. 
His chubby face was long remembered, with iron gray 
curls that shook when he laughed. He had no children. 
This is his epitaph: 

"A stranger to this town I came. 
And left my father's home. 
To heal the sick my mind was led. 
And now I'm numbered with the dead." 

Dr. William Whitaker was married in 1775 and again 
in 1807; he is occasionally mentioned in the records of 
town meetings. 




HENRY A. WHITNEY, 1842—1915 



Chapter XIV 
BELLINGHAM IN 1919 

Our town is on the western border of Norfolk County, 
and its south end borders on Rhode Island. Its center is 
thirty miles from Boston, and twenty from Providence, 
seven from Woonsocket, five from Franklin and four from 
Milford. It is eight miles long, and from two miles wide 
at the south end to three at the north, with an area of 
twelve and one-half square miles. There is not much to 
be said for the land of the town; the exploring committee 
from Dedham in 1692 reported that it was not worth lay- 
ing out. A gazetteer of 1828 says: "The soil is sandy and 
not of the first quality." Near the center is Saddleback 
Hill, three hundred and forty feet above the level of the 
sea, which is a part of the watershed between the Charles 
and Blackstone River valleys. The Charles River leaves 
the town at Caryville about one hundred and sixty feet 
above sea level. Another noticeable hill is Scott Hill, over 
which runs South Main Street, the western border of 
the Peter's River valley, which is the southern half of 
the town. This beautiful, clear stream is said to be 
named for crabbed old Peter Bates, who lived beside it 
at the foot of a long hill south of the State line, and 
kept slaves. 

Early in the course of this stream, near the Franklin 
line, Maj. Joel Crooks had two sawmills; he used in the 
afternoon at the lower one the same water which came 
from the forenoon's work at the upper one. 

Near the middle of its course is Hoag Lake, where 

£01 



202 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

an amusement park was run by the street railway com- 
pany for several years. Farther down and a little above 
Rakeville is Jenckes' Reservoir, which furnishes ice for 
Woonsocket. A little south of it is Bungay Brook, 
coming from Wrentham on the east. 

At the eastern edge of this valley near Bald Hill, 
before the railroad came, there was a well known mineral 
spring. In the swamp above Hoag Lake is a place called 
the Stamping Ground because deer used to meet there. 
On the Crooks farm near the stream is a ledge called For- 
tin's Rock; the story is that a slave of that name (Fortune.'^) 
used to pray there when he came to wash in the morning. 
Near to it is a boulder with a large square hole drilled 
in it, supposed to have been used by Indians for crush- 
ing corn. 

This whole valley was a natural resort for the Red 
Men, whose canoes could descend the Blackstone from 
Woonsocket Falls and the Charles from the falls at the 
Red Mill. Arrow heads are found on the bluff north 
of Crooks' Corner, near Jenckes' Reservoir and elsewhere, 
and Indians were buried where the South Cemetery is now. 

The other end of the town has a larger stream, the 
Charles River, coming from Hopkinton and Milford, 
which enters Bellingham near its northwest corner. It 
widens into Factory Pond at South Milford, where it 
separates the two towns, and here is the first of the four 
water powers averaging sixty-five horse power, which 
first made this a manufacturing town. At Bellingham 
Center the river turns east and forms two ponds, Box Pond 
and the "Navy Yard" with its Red Mill. Here, too, 
flows in a brook nearly two miles long from the clear 
water of Beaver Pond, which is itself half as long. The 
second water power is at the Red Mill. After flowing 
east for two miles the river then runs nearly north, 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 203 

cutting off about a third of the town's surface from the 
rest; most of this part was Rawson's Farm. Stall Brook 
comes from Milford like the river, and flows into it at 
North Bellingham. At the last two falls in the river 
come the two northern villages, North Bellingham and 
Caryville, the latter spreading out into Medway and 
Franklin. 

To go from one end of the town to the other, one 
begins at the northeast corner and follows Hartford 
Avenue for three miles, then North Main Street to the 
Center, South Main Street to Crooks' Corner and then 
a half mile on Centre Street to Woonsocket, at the 
southwest corner. The whole journey is over State or 
improved road. The first of these streets is the oldest 
in town, laid out in 1670 from Medfield to Mendon, and 
a part of the middle road from Boston to Hartford. It 
was incorporated as a turnpike about 1796, and people 
paid toll to use it; one toll house was near the Green Store 
at South Milford. In 1806 Stephen Metcalf took a 
contract to build one hundred and eighty-three rods of it 
through Black Swamp in Medway twenty-four feet wide, 
graveled eight feet wide, for $2.43 a rod; a share in its 
ownership was sold as late as 1821. In 1914 the State, 
Millis and Medway together spent $9000 on this part of 
it. From Bellingham Center to Medway the road is being 
rebuilt this year. This long main axis of the town is 
crossed by another much busier one, leading from Milford 
to Franklin. This, like the road from Crooks' Corner to 
Woonsocket, was built by the State in 1902-1906 at a 
total cost of $23,000 for both. They had cost $9685 to 
maintain in 1917; Bellingham paid $318 for that purpose 
that year. 

An alphabetical list of the streets in the town; they 
were named in 1878: 



204 



HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 



Arthur Street 
Beech Street 
Blackstone Street 
Brook Street 
Centre Street 
Chestnut Street 
Cross Street 
Depot Street 
Farm Street 
Governor Avenue 
Grove Street 
Hartford Avenue 
High Street 
Hixon Street 
Lake Street 
Locust Street 
Mechanic Street 
Mendon Street 
Nason Street 
North Street 
North Main Street 
Paine Street 
Pearl Street 
Pine Street 
Railway Street 
Social Street 
South Main Street 
Taunton Street 
Westminster Avenue 
Wrentham Street 



Wrentham Street to Paine Street. 

Caryville to Franklin. 

Mechanic Street southwest across the town to Blackstone. 

Blackstone Street to Mendon Street. 

South Main Street to Woonsocket. 

South Main Street to Blackstone. 

Centre Street by Hoag Lake to Franklin. 

Town Hall to South Milford by Bellirgham Junction. 

Caryville by the Town Farm to Hartford Avenue again. 

Centre Street to Pothier Street near Blackstone. 

South Milford to Milford. 

Caryville to South Milford. 

Crimp ville to Maple Street. 

Hartford Avenue near Beaver Pond. 

Cross Street to Wrentham Street. 

Franklin Street to Wrentham Street. 

Town Hall to Four Corners, southeast. 

Town Hall west to Mcncon. 

Hartford Avenue to Taunton Street. 

Blackstone Street to Mendon. 

Town Hall to Hartford Avenue. 

Crooks' Corner to East Woonsocket. 

Caryville to Franklin. 

Maple Street to Franklin. 

Centre Street to Lake Street. 

Woonsocket to Centre Street. 

Town Hall by Scott Hill to Crooks' Corner, 

Crimpville to South Milford. 

Centre Street to Blackstone. 

Crooks' Corner to Wrentham. 



The villages and localities in town, beginning at the 
north, are these: Caryville, North Bellingham, Partridge- 
town, South Milford, Crimpville, Bellingham Center, 
Four Corners, Scott Hill, Rand's Crossing or South 
Bellingham, Rakeville and Crooks' Corner. 

Most of the land of Caryville belonged to the Met- 
calf family for a long time. Joseph Fairbanks bought 
his farm and the water power on the Charles River here 
from them, and started the factory in 1813, which has 
run ever since. His grandsons, Edwin and William 
Fairbanks, began the manufacture of boots, the second 
town industry in size, which lasted till the shop was 
burned in 1876. 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 205 

The school district here was set off from the next 
one in 1855, and a good building was put up, used till 
1901, when the two districts were united again, with the 
present large building. The first grocery store here was 
kept by Alphseus Grant in the building now used as a 
part of the mill office. His successor was Warren Mann 
of West Medway, and then E. B. Stowe, who was station 
agent and postmaster for forty years. This store belongs 
now to Goldthwaite Brothers, and there is another at 
the electric car station, kept by Camp Brothers. The 
Caryville postmasters have been David Lawrence 1866, 
Calvin Fairbanks 1867, E. B. Stowe 1885, Josephine M. 
Stowe 1888, Edith M. Brown 1903, F. N. Chase 1914, 
Perry Goldthwaite, Jr. 1915. 

North Bellingham is the second village, about a 
mile south of Caryville. Deacon Thomas Sanford built 
"a mansion house" beside Stall Brook, which Pelatiah 
Smith bought of him in 1702, with about two hundred 
acres of land. His family owned most of it for nearly 
two hundred j'^ears. His grandson started the principal 
tavern in town here, which still stands after over a cen- 
tury, the largest dwelling house in town, now owned by 
the Bellingham Woolen Company. A manufacturers' 
directory calls the population of North Bellingham four 
hundred. 

The oldest and largest cemetery joins the Smith lands 
on the south. The mill here has run since 1810, when it 
was built for a company of Mendon and Franklin men by 
Joseph Ray. There are two churches here. The village 
store was kept by David Lawrence, by Elbridge Grant for 
many years, and is now kept by Camp Brothers. The 
North Bellingham postmasters have been M. Z. Bullard 
1850, N. J. Arnold 1851, L. P. Coburn 1855, C. H. Chace 
1856, E. J. Adams 1857, A. L. Metcalf 1862, S. J. Law- 



206 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

rence 1866, S. B. Smith 1870, Elbridge Grant 1880, Grace 
Grant 1909, E. E. Grant 1910, and E. T. Camp 1911. 

Partridgetown is a part of the valley of Stall Brook 
on Farm Street, including the town farm and three others. 

South Milford is a village now in three towns, Milford, 
Hopedale and Bellingham, all of which were set off from 
Mendon. It was one of the chief centers of that old 
town, and possessed a post office in 1814, nine years 
earlier than Milford. That office has always been in 
Mendon or Hopedale, as was the old toll house and the 
Green Store, but the cotton and woolen mill, 1812-1868, 
and the home of the five South Milford doctors, the two 
Corbets and the three Scammels, are within our town. 

Those residents of Bellingham north of the Center 
who are not accommodated by the post offices at Caryville 
and North Bellingham are reached by the Medway Free 
Delivery Route No. 2, which has about one hundred 
and fifty mail boxes on a circuit of twenty-two and two 
tenths miles from Medway Village in Bellingham and 
Franklin. 

Crimpville is the name of a small group of houses 
less than a mile north of the town house and across the 
Charles River from it, where the first Baptist Church 
was built in 1744. The name came from the process of 
shaping the legs of boots, which was carried on here 
before the Civil War. This was one of the smaller school 
districts for a time. 

Bellingham Center is the meeting place of five roads» 
and the town house, schoolhouse, Baptist Church and 
store stand near together. In 1837 there were ten or 
twelve houses here. The Red Mill is near by, which 
was busy from 1830 to about 1860, and there were some 
small boot shops here then. For a long time the store 
has been kept by L. Francis Thayer and his father Ruel F. 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 207 

Thayer before him. The old center of the town, where 
the first meeting house stood, built in 1722, was about a 
mile farther south, at the corner of Blackstone and South 
Main Streets. The Bellingham postmasters have been 
Wright Curtis 1823, Olney Foristall 1825, Hamlet Barber 
1829, Elias Thayer 1831-1833. There was no office for 
four years. Then Joseph T. Massey 1837, Ellery Thayer 
1840, Ruel F. Thayer 1864, E. E. Rockwood 1890, L. F. 
Thayer 1895, R. S. Thayer 1915. 

The Four Corners are formed by the crossing of 
Maple and Mechanic Streets close to the Franklin line, 
about a mile from the town house. Four lines of electric 
cars meet here every hour, for Caryville and Medway, 
Franklin, Woonsocket, Bellingham Center and Milford. 

Scott Hill is the general name of the high land on 
South Main Street where the Scott family has always lived, 
where more of the town can be seen at one view than any- 
where else, most of it the pleasant Peter's River valley, 
four miles long and half as wide. 

South Bellingham has usually not meant the south 
end of the town, but a few houses near where the Midland 
Railroad from Franklin to Blackstone crosses Centre 
Street near Railroad and Park Streets. This place is 
also called Rand's Crossing. It was once called Mullen- 
ville for a few years. A South Bellingham post office 
was kept by Paul Chilson 1850, and Reuben Chilson, 
1851 to 1856; again by Orville C. Rhodes, 1887-1901. 

Ninety-nine persons in the south part of the town 
signed a petition in 1891 for free delivery of their mail 
from the Woonsocket office in a district of six and one- 
half square miles with a circuit of nineteen miles. The 
carrier's journey is now six hours long, over twenty-four 
and seven tenths miles, and he visits two hundred and 
twenty-two mail boxes. 



208 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Rakeville was the name given to the neighborhood 
of the shop of Mr. Wilcox where rakes and other agri- 
cultural implements were made, about a mile east of 
Crooks' Corner on Wrentham Street. 

Crooks' Corner, where five streets meet, is a half 
mile from Woonsocket and the Rhode Island line, at the 
southwest corner of the town. There seems to have 
been no tavern here in 1797, when the place for posting 
town warrants was undecided, but Wright Curtis kept 
one later till 1834, and then Jeremiah Crooks for thirty 
years. Close by is the south schoolhouse, which has 
had to be enlarged to keep up with the growth of the 
Woonsocket families whose homes are constantly coming 
farther and farther across the State line. Seven tracts 
of land have been divided into house lots and streets, and 
a few new street signs have been put up : 

Social Park in 1900, on Centre Street and Peter's 
River. 

Fairview Park in 1902, on Centre Street and Park 
Street. 

Social Terrace in 1909, en Centre Street. 

Social Villa in 1910, from Centre Street to Blackstone. 

Franco Villa in 1913, on Paine Street and Peter's 
River. 

Vallier Farm in 1913, on Paine Street and Wrentham 

Street. 

Central Manor in 1916, on Centre Street and Peter's 

River. 

The village store has been kept here lately by Hadley 
D. Perkins, but it has now been sold to Peter Duquette, 
who came from Connecticut. 

The majority of our people from Crooks' Corner to 
Woonsocket are French, who belong to that city in 
many ways. There the first ones came as farmers, a 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 209 

few as early as 1814, and then went to work in the mills, 
which had just started. It is said that in 1841 there were 
only four French families in Woonsocket, but they came 
after that very fast, and the French population was 
fifteen hundred in 1847. Woonsocket was made a 
town in 1867; now it is a city of about forty-six 
thousand. 

There are now about fifty-five French families in 
the south part of the town, and a few others elsewhere. 
Mr. Pascal Millet, who has lived close to the State line fif- 
teen years, is eighty-six years old ; he came to Woonsocket 
forty years ago. Mr. Edward Valliere has divided his 
land into house lots and streets near Crooks' Corner. 
Mr. William Rattier is perhaps the oldest French citizen; 
he has been here twenty-five or thirty years. 

There are about fifteen Polish families here; the first 
comer was Lyon Kopinki, nine years. At North Bell- 
ingham and Caryville there are about as many more. 
At that end of the town are a few Armenian families. 

We have two lines of electric cars; the longer one 
connects at Caryville with cars to Milford and Medway, 
and runs south to North Bellingham, Four Corners, 
Hoag Lake, Crooks' Corner and Woonsocket; the other 
comes from Franklin to Four Corners, then to Belling- 
ham Center and South Milford to Milford. Both these 
lines meet at Four Corners every hour. 

The town is crossed by three steam railroads. The 
first petition for a road from Boston to Woonsocket 
came before the Legislature in 1845. In 1861 trains ran 
from Brookline to Medway Village, and since 1863 they 
have run through to Woonsocket. There are now six 
passenger trains a day each way on this road, and three 
stations in town, Caryville, North Bellingham and 
Bellingham Junction, where it is crossed by the small 



210 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

road from Franklin to Milford. This road has another 
station at South Milford. It has been running since 
1882. Our third railroad is the one from Boston to 
Willimantic, Conn., by Franklin and Blackstone. It 
has a flag station at Centre Street near Railroad Street 
named South Bellingham. This was called Rand's 
Crossing in 1853, and there was then another station 
near the Blackstone line, called Mill River, now aban- 
doned. From its position the oldest railroad in town has 
almost no local business here. 

In telephones, as in other ways, our people are con- 
nected with different towns; two of our telephones belong 
to the Franklin exchange, five to Medway, sixteen to 
Milford, and thirty-seven to Woonsocket. 

There are five cemeteries in the town. The one 
at North Bellingham was in use in 1718, for it is men- 
tioned in a deed as "the burying place." At least four 
stones can now be read there, which are earlier than 
the formation of the town. These are some of the 
noticeable ones: 

. , . Johnson departed in the . . . year of his age 
April 5 1715. 

HER LISE THE BODY OF BENONNI TOMSON 

DESEED THE 14 DAY APRIL 1719 

DR lOHN CORBETT 1726 

PELATIAH SMITH 1727 

1775 Come my friends behold & see 
the place where once I us'd to be 
But now I'm in Eternity 
prepare for Death & follow me 

1811 As I pass by with grief I see 
My loving mate was took from me 
Tho took by him who has a right 
To call for me when he sees fit 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 211 

1787 Depart my friends 
Wipe off your tears 
Here I must lie 
Till Christ appears 

Mrs Mary Relict of Mr. Eleazcr Hayward Mar. 1.5 
1814 in the hundred & second year of her age 
I have waited for thy salvation O Lord 

The South BeHingham cemetery is on Centre Street 
near where it is crossed by both the steam and the electric 
railroads. In 1717 at the third meeting of the pro- 
prietors of the common land between Wrentham and 
Dedham and the second meeting here, at the house of 
Nicholas Cook, "two or three acres" were voted for 
a burying place. His gravestone is here now. The 
yard was accepted by the town in 1756, and its bounds 
set up. Many of the stones have the phrase "which 
deceased"; which is sometimes used for who in the Bible, 
translated in 1611. Indians were buried in this same 
place. 

Land for the Center Cemetery was given in 1778 
by Jonathan Thompson and David Jones, and it was 
laid out by Elisha Burr. He wondered who would be 
buried here first, and it was his own young daughter 
Rebekah. " She died 1781 Aged 14 The first here buried." 
Mr. Alden's stone reads: "Sacred to the memory of 
Elder Noah Alden of Bellingham who Deceased from 
this Life May 5 1797 in the 72 year of his Age and 48 
Year of his Public Ministry 31 of which he spent in this 
place." 

The Scammel cemetery is on Grove Street at South 
Milford. It has only eighteen stones, the earliest dated 
1839. Here is a monument to the Scammel family and 
especially to "Alexander Scammel Adjutant General 
of the American Armies and Colonel of the First Reg- 
iment of New Hampshire. While he commanded a 



212 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

chosen corps of light infantry at the successful siege of 
York Town Va. in the gallant performance of his duty, 
a field officer of the day, he was unfortunately captured 
and afterwards insidiously wounded, of which wound 
he expired at Williamsburg Oct 1781 37 anno setatis." 

The Rakeville cemetery dates from about 1830. 
It is a neat yard with many beautiful stones. 

Of the oldest persons in town, Mrs. Amanda Adams 
is ninety-four years old, and Mrs. Joanna Leahy ninety; 
above eighty-five are William E. Coombs, George C. 
McMaster, Pascal Millet, C. C. Willis and Mrs. Mary S. 
Pickering; above eighty are Joseph F. Hoar, Oliver 
Miette, Orlando S. Stetson, Alonzo N. Whitney and 
Mrs. Elizabeth Burke, Mrs. Olive Cook, and Mrs. 
Elizabeth Robelard. 

The town's population during its second century has 
been: 

1820 1034 1850 1281 1880 1223 1910 1696 
1830 1102 1860 1313 1890 1334 1915 1953 
1840 1055 1870 1282 1900 1682 

The gain for ten years, 1905 to 1915, was about sixteen 
per cent, while the whole State gained twenty-three per 
cent. 

In 1915 thirty-one per cent of the people of Massa- 
chusetts were foreign born, and fiv^e hundred and thirty 
persons here were born in foreign countries, twenty-seven 
per cent of the whole; in 1905 it was four hundred and 
thirty-one, or twenty-five per cent of the whole. In 1915 
two hundred and forty persons here were born in Canada, 
ninety in Ireland, fifty-five in Poland, forty-nine in 
England, thirty-one in Sweden, thirt}' in Russia, nineteen 
in Italy, eighteen in Scotland, and seventeen in France. 
The names of seventy children born in town in the last 
two years seem to show thirty-three of American or 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 



213 



English origin, twenty-five French, seven PoHsh, four 
ItaHan, and one Swedish. 

In 1915 six hundred and forty-six men and two 
hundred and nineteen women were reported at work: 

In manufacturing and mechanical industry 327 men 147 women 

Farming 180 men 

Trade 68 men 7 women 

Domestic and personal service 11 men 31 women 

Transportation 33 men 2 women 

Professional service 12 men 18 women 

Clerical work 14 men 16 women 



The three hundred and forty-seven voters in 1919 
had thirty-one different occupations: 



Mill, 

Farmer, 

Machinist, 

Laborer, 

Clerk, 

Fireman, 

Baker, 


104 
87 
34 

28 

10 

3 

2 


Chauffeur, 

Chef 

Electrician, 

Merchant, 

Carpenter, 

Railroad, 

Painter, 


2 
2 
2 
10 
9 
9 
7 


Teamster, 

Ma-on, 

Blacksmith, 

Janitor, 

Manufacturer, 

Straw Worker, 

Butcher, 


7 
2 
4 
4 
4 
4 
3 


One each : 












Accountant, 

Barber, 

Dyer, 




Drummer 
Mail Carrier 
Plumber 




Peddler 
Molder 
Telephone 
Watchmaker 





The town is not directly represented as a town in 
either the government of the United States or of the 
State; in all their elections it chooses its Representatives 
as a part of some district defined for that purpose. In 
early years every town was required to send its own 
Representative to the General Court, but Bellingham was 
often excused from that duty. Its Representatives 
have been : 



1776 Stephen Metcalf 
1781-1782 Stephen Metcalf 
1783 Stephen Metcalf 
178j 1787 and two other years. 



1788 
1791 



Aaron Holbrook 
Aaron Holbrook 



1792 
1794 
1797 
1800 
1804 
1806 
1807 



Aaron Holbrook 
Joseph Holbrook 
Joseph Holbrook 
Laban Bates 
Laban Bates 
Daniel Thiirber 
Daniel Thiirber 



214 



HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 



1808-16 John Bates 


1853 


Fenner Cook 


1819 


Benjamin Hall 


1854 


John Cook, 2d 


1823 


Amos Hill 


1855 


John Cook. 2d 


1824 


Elias Cook 


1856 


Martin Rockwood 


1827 


John C. Scammel 


1858 


Horace Rockwood 


1829 


Joseph Rockwood 


1861 


Daniel J. Pickering 


1831 


John C. Scammel 


1863 


George H. Townsend 


1832 


Stephen Metcalf, Jr. 


1866 


William Fairbanks 


1834 


Stephen Metcalf. Jr. 


1872 


Seneca Biirr 


1838 


Asa Pickering 


1875 


Joseph T. Massey 


1841 


Dwight Colbm-n 


1879 


Hiram Whiting 


1842 


Edward C. Craig 


1882 


Nathan A. Cook 


1843 


Jeremiah Crooks 


1888 


Elijah B. Stowe 


1844 


James M. Freeman 


1900 


Warren E. Fairbanks 


1846 


James M. Freeman 


1904 


Henry N. Whitney 


1847 


John Cook, 2d 


1906 


Addison E. BuUard 


1851 


Martin Rockwood 


1918 


Clarence A. Crooks 


1852 


Edwin Fairbanks 







Under the careful and detailed laws of the State 
Legislature each town governs its own affairs, and makes 
an annual report. By our two hundredth report of 1919 
every citizen can understand the process. 

The first business at the annual town meeting in 
March is to choose a moderator for that meeting, and 
W. E. Fairbanks was chosen this year; he has filled that 
position thirty-three times in March, and at twenty-three 
special town meetings. 

The first two officers to be chosen for the year are 
the clerk and the treasurer; in the past they have been: 



Town Clerks 



1720 


Pelatiah Smith 


1754-60 


Joseph Chilson 


1721, 2 


John Marsh 


1761 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1723 


Eleazer Partridge 


1762, 3 


Joseph Chilson 


1724-7 


John Marsh 


1764-70 


Seth Hall 


1728, 9 


James Smith 


1771-7 


Aaron Holbrook 


1730-37 


John Hoi brook 


1778-80 


Laban Bates 


1738 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1781 


Aaron Holbrook 


1739 


John Metcalf 


1782-6 


Amos Ellis 


1740-43 


Jonathan Thompson 


1787-9 


Elisha Burr 


1744-9 


Joseph Chilson 


1790 


Amos Ellis 


1750-53 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1791 


Cyrus Thompson 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 



215 



1792, 3 


Eliab Wight 


1845 


James M. Freeman 


1794, 5 


Joseph Holbrook 


1846, 7 


Amos H. Holbrook 


1796-1802 Eliab Wight 


1848 


Francis D. Bates 


1803-18 


John Bates 


1849-54 


Amos H. Holbrook 


1819, 20 


Dr. Samuel L. Scammel 


1855, 6 


Eliab Holbrook 


1821-3 


Elias Cook 


1857-69 


Ruel F. Thayer 


1824 


Joseph Rockwood 


1870-79 


Joseph T. Massey 


1825, 6 


John C. Scammel 


1880-2 


Dr. Roland Hammond 


18^7-37 


John Cook, 2d 


1883 


Arthur N. Whitney 


1838-41 


Edward C. Craig 


1883-1915 Henry A. Whitney 


1842-4 


Francis C. Bates 


1915-19 


Percy C. Burr 




Town 


Treasurers 


1720-7 


John Holbrook 


1770 


Samuel Scott 


1728 


John Thompson, Sr. 


1771-5 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1729-33 


John Thompson, Jr. 


1776-86 


Joseph Thompson 


1734 


Jonathan Thayer 


1787-1801 


Aaron Holbrook 


1735. 6 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1802-8 


John Cook 


1737 


David Corbet 


1809-18 


Elias Thayer 


1738 


John Metcalf 


1819-29 


Asa Hall 


1739 


Dr. John Corbet 


1830-39 


Stephen L?wett 


1740 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1840, 41 


Eliab Holbrook 


1741 


Dr. John Corbet 


1842-7 


William Paine 


1742 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1848 


Ellery Thayer 


1743 


Joseph Holbrook 


1849 


Francis D. Bates 


1744 


Jonathan Thompson 


1850 


John Smith 


1745 


John Jones 


1851, 2 


Francis D. Bates 


1746, 7 


Jonathan Thompson 


1853, 4 


Valentine W. Holbrook 


1748, 9 


Joseph Chilson 


1855 


William Paine 


1750-52 


Joseph Thompson 


1856, 7 


Horatio Thayer 


1753 


Jose\)h Wight, Jr. 


1858 


Manning Thayer 


1754-6 


Eliphalet Holbrook 


1859-68 


Joseph T. Massey 


1757 


Cornelius Thayer 


1869 


Nathan A. Cook 


1758 


Joseph Chilson 


1870-79 


Joseph T. Massey 


1759-63 


Benjamin Partridge 


1880-1901 


Ruel F. Thayer 


1764 


Dr. John Corbet 


1902-9 


L. Francis Thayer 


1765-9 


Caleb Phillips 


1909-19 


Walter H. Thayer 



Present Town Officers 

Clerk, Percy C. Burr. 

Treasurer, Walter H. Thayer. 

Selectmen, Harold M. Bullard, Cornelius J. Foley, Hadley D. Perkins. 

Assessors, Carroll E. White, John F. McCarthy, Timothy E. Foley. 

Overseers of the Poor, Otto L. Bullard, Emery B. Whiting, Percy C. Burr. 

School Committee, Joseph A. Palmer, Henry A. McCarthy, John R. Kennelly. 

Auditor, Michael J. Smith. 

Tax Collector. Walter H. Thayer. 

Tree Warden, Lewis E. Whitney. 



Poor, Income and 


$1600 


Town Officers 


1589 


Interest 


604 


Miscellaneous 


578 


Tree Warden 


200 


Board of Health 


180 


Cemeteries 


138 


Memorial Day 


60 



216 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

Constables, Moise Champagne, Eli E. Cook, John H. Foley. 
Cemetery Committee, Lewis E. Whitney, Eldred J. Wentzel. 
Library Trustees, Bertha Franklin, Warren E. Whiting, A. Evelyn Sackett, 
Waldo I. Cook, Susan C. Fairbanks, Lawrence Mason. 

The town clerk reported seventy births in 1918, 
fifteen marriages and thirty-nine deaths. One hundred 
and thirty-eight dogs were heensed and ninety-two hunt- 
ers' Hcenses issued. 

The expenses were: 

Schools, Income and $8500 

Streets 10645 

Mothers' Aid 1800 

Street Lights 1643 

Insurance 469 

Forest Fires 316 

Printing 311 

Tree Moths ^44 

There were five citizens at the town farm. 

The Assessors reported three hundred and one per- 
sons who pay only a poll tax, and three hundred and 
ninety-two residents with thiee hundred and eighteen 
non-residents who pay a property tax, on $297,365 per- 
sonal and $959,705 real estate, $19 for each $1000. 
There are eleven thousand two hundred and ten acres of 
land, four hundred and forty-six houses, two hundred 
and six horses, tliree hundred and eighty-five cows, one 
hundred and eleven other cattle, fifty sheep, forty-three 
swine and four thousand three hundred and fifteen fowls. 

In the last published tax book, for 1916, there were 
twenty-four persons in town who paid $100 or more each 
and five non-residents: 

A. A. Aldrich, $112 Proctor P. Cook, $149 James Riley, $132 

O. L. Bullard, 183 Ferdinand DeJony, 231 Edgar M. Scott, 148 

A. E. Bullard, 337 Hubert Guerin, 120 George A. Staples, 109 
Bellingham Woolen Co., 2200 Asahel W. Mann, 115 Joseph A. Trottier, 376 

Clarence A. Crooks, 116 Patrick O'Nell, 104 Taft Woolen Co., 1886 

Judson E. Camp, 367 Henry W. Pickering, 176 L. Francis Thaver, 679 

Alfred Carrier, 251 Wilfred Pelletier, 101 Marion A. White, 118 

William A. Coombs. 127 Eldridge A. Rhodes. 133 Julia A. White, 105 



BELLINGHAM IN 1919 217 

Non-Residents: Joseph B. Cook, Cumberland, $100; Joseph G. Ray, 
Franklin. $245; M. A. & W. Street Railway, Iloa^ Lake, etc., $1.22; Western 
Union Telegraph Company, N. Y., $128; Winnesuket Golf Club, Woonsocket, 
$105. These residents paid $8375, and these non-residents $1000, of the whole 
amount, $22,000. 

The town reduced its debt by $1000 last year, 
leaving only $3000 of schoolhouse notes due, and its 
temporary debt is offset by its cash balance, kept for 
this year's needs. 

The tax rate in 1919 is $21 on a thousand. 

The cemetery trust fund amounts to $2972, for the 
care of forty-six lots. 

The town library was started in 1884 and kept for ten 
years in the house of Martin Rockwood. In 1895 it was 
moved to the Massey School. The annual appropriation 
was at first $50; it is now $400. Miss Bertha Franklin 
was the librarian from 1907 to 1919; her successor is 
Mrs. A. Evelyn Sackett. The home circulation in 1918 
was: Center, two thousand nine hundred and twenty-one; 
Caryville, nine hundred and eighty -four; Crooks' Corner, 
five hundred and twenty-six; South Bellingham, two 
hundred; Schools, two hundred and seventy; total, four 
thousand nine hundred. The whole number of volumes is 
about three thousand. 

The schools are managed by a superintendent, Mr. 
F. G. Atwell, hired by the three towns, Mendon, Hope- 
dale and Bellingham, whose salary was $2250, of which 
Bellingham paid $810. We had twelve teachers, who 
received $5491. Of three hundred and fifty-seven per- 
sons in town between five and sixteen years old, three 
hundred and sixteen were in our schools, which were in 
session one hundred and sixty-nine days. In 1915 forty- 
nine persons over ten years old could not read. The cost 
of general control was $679, books $123, supplies $334, 
janitors $900, fuel $616, transportation of pupils within 



218 HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM 

the town $217, of twenty- three pupils to other towns 
$535, and tuition of those pupils $928; but the State 
repaid $800 of it. The whole cost of the schools was 
about $11,000. 

A Comparative Table 



Source of supply 


Whole amount 


Per pupil 


Rank in the State 


Town valuation 


$1,152,860 


$35.93 


No. 322 


State aid 


1,963 


6.80 


141 


Town school tax 


8,768 


7.61 per $1000 


104 


Town school tax 


8,768 


30.00 per pupil 


273 


All sources 


10,853 


37.04 


293 



This table shows that Bellingham is comparatively 
a poor town; the valuation of the State amounts to 
$8294 for every pupil in it; in Bellingham it is only $3593, 
making its rank in ability to support its schools among 
the three hundred and fifty-four cities and towns No. 
322. But it receives in aid from the State $6.80 for 
each pupil, ranking No. 141, and it taxes itself $7.61 per 
$1000 for schools, with the high rank of No. 104. The 
pupils receive of its own money $30 each, in which respect 
it ranks No. 273, and from all sources $37.04, giving the 
town the rank of No. 293. 

The last subject of this chapter and of this book 
is the schools. Upon them, with the churches and the 
homes, depends chiefly what kind of people will live 
here in the future; and these three institutions themselves 
depend on what the people of Bellingham do now. 



INDEX 



Only the more important subjects are mentioned here, 
names of persons are in alphabetical order. 



Adams family, 140 

Adams, Gen. Eliakim, 187 

Adams, Capt. Laban, 187 

Adams, William T., 188 

Albee, John. 188-190 

Alden, Rev. Noah, 107-113, 132-136 

Appropriations, ISJi, 216 

Arnold, Seth, 145 

Ballon, Adin, 162-164 

Ballon Meeting House, 42 

Baptist meetinghouse, first, 101 

Baptist persecution, 105 

Baptists, 31,100 

Barber, George, 151 

Barber, Hamlet, 190 

Bartlett, Jacob, 30, 38-40, 78 

Bates & Arnold, 146, 147 

Bellingham Center, 206 

Bellingham, Gov. Richard, 1-13 

Bellingham, Washington, 1 

Bills of credit, 49 

Blackstone, William, 37 

Blood, Richard, 44 

Boots and .-hoes, 142. 158 

Bosworth, Rev. G. W., 190 

Boundary lines, 91, 97, 172 

Brown, Horace A., 191 

Bullard, Addison E., Preface and 147, 

153 
Burch, Thomas, 45 

Capron, Banfield, 45 

Caryville, 204 

Cemeteries, 210-212 

Charles River, 124, 201-203, 140 

Chilson family, 46, 157 

Civil War, 181-183 

Colburn, Dwight, 146, 154, 109 



All the lists of 



161, 



Congregational Church, 73-83, 

162, 164 
Constitution of Massachusetts, 126- 

128, 132-135 
Constitution of United States, 110, 

136 
Cook, David, 78 
Cook, Josiah, 78 
Cook, Nathan A., 190 
Cook, Niciiolas, 30, 40-42 
Cook family, 140 
Corbet, Elder Daniel, 49 
Corbet, Dr. John, 47-51, 154, 155 
Corbet family, 47 
Cotton and woolen manufacture, 141- 

158 
Crimpville, 206 
Crooks' Corner, 208 
Crooks, Jeremiah, 191, 208 
Cuddihy, Rev. Patrick, 168 
Cutler, C. H., 152 

Darling family, 51, 140 
Dean, Dr. Oliver, 151 
Dedham, 29 
Dorr Rebellion, 174-179 
Drury, Rev. Lucian, 167 

Electric lights, 185 

Electric railroads, 184, 185, 209 

Fairbanks, Joseph, 148, 149 

Fairbanks, Rufus G., 191 

Fairbanks, W. E., 214 

Fisher, Rev. Abial, 117, 160-165 

Four Corners, 207 

French citizens, 208, 209, 212 

Frost, Joseph, war service, 129 



219 



220 



INDEX 



Gammel, Rev. William, IIG 
Government of the town, 213-218 
Grange, 184 

Hall, Zm-iel, 52 
Hammond, Dr. Roland, 199 
Hartford Turnpike, 48, 203 
Hastings, Seth, 144 
Hay ward family, 52-54 

Oliver, 93 
Hill family, 140 
Holbrook, Dr. Amos, 199 
Holbrook family, 54, 55, 140 
Hollislon, 118, 120 

Incorporation, 73-76 
Indians, Chapter II, 29, 202 
Ingalls family, 56 

Jillson family, 56 

Jones, Rev. Cornelius, 192 

Kendrick, Rev. Nathaniel, 116 
King Philips War, 14-21 

In Dedham, 15 

In Medfield, 16 

In Mendon, 14, 16 

In Millis, 18 

In Wrentham, 17 

Lee, Rev. M. J., 169 
Leland, Rev. Aaron, 112 
Leland, Rev. John, 110, 111 
Library, 184, 217 
Lowney, Rev. T. B., 169 

Marsh, John, 57 

Massachusetts religious laws, 30-34 
Massey, Rev. Joseph T., 165. 166 
McKean, W. A., 153, 157 
Meetinghouse, first, 90, 125 

three, 123 
Mendon, 29, 91, 95 
Metcalf, John, 18, 80, 88, 125, 192- 

195 
Metcalf, Stephen, 148, 149, 195 
Military afifairs, 118, 119, 122 
Mills, Rev. Jonathan, 78-80, 82 

Nelson, Rev. S. S., 117 
Newton, Rev. Calvin, 165 
North Bellingham, 205 



Occupations, 183, 213 
OlJest citizens, 212 
Orne, Caroline F., 196 
Overseers of the Poor, 137, 173 

Partridge, Benjamin, 121 
Partridge, George F., 58 
Partridge family, 58 
Penniman family, 144 
Peter's River, 201, 202 
Phillips, Caleb, 58 
Polish citizens, 209, 212 
Population, 140, 212 

Quakers, 9, 32-35 

Rand's Crossing, 207 
Rathbun, Rev. V. W., 113, 117 
Rawson, Secretary Edward, 22, 23, 

27, 28 
Rawson, Grindal, 24-27 
Rawson, Rebecca, 23, 24 
Ray family, 143, 144, 147, 150, 152, 

155 
Reardon, Rev. Joseph, 169 
Representative at the General Court, 

90, 119, 125, 136, 213 
Revolution, 125-131 
Rhode Island's toleration, 35 
Rich, Samuel, 59 
Rockwood, Rev. J. M., 196 

Sanford, Thomas, 41, 59-61 
Scammel, Gen. Alexander, 196,197, 

211 
Scammel, Dr. Samuel L., 50 
Schools, 95, 97, 98, 118, 120, 131, 137, 

138, 173, 174, 181, 183, 184, 217, 

218 
Scott, Joseph, 46, 78, 94 

Rila, 145 
Scott family, 61-67, 140 
Scott Hill, 207 
Slaves, 51, 118, 202 
Smallpox, 128, 137, 173 
Smith, Rev. Thomas, 76 
Smith family, 68, 69, 172 
South Bellingham, 207 
South Cemetery, 41 
South Milford, 206 



INDEX 



221 



Steam railroads, 180, 209 
Stowe, Elijah B., 198 
Straw manufacture, 142 
Streets, 203, 204 
Sturgeon, Rev. Robert, 77 
Swansea Baptist Church, 81 

Taft, Moses, 152, 153, 15G 

Taxes, petition about, 123 

Telephones, 210 

Thayer, Gen. John M., 198, 199 

Thayer family, 69, 140 

Thompson family, 70, 119, 120, 140 

Thomson war letters, 119, 120 

Thurber, Dr. Samuel, 200 

Town Clerks, 214 

Townhouse, 114, 115, 162 

Town meeting dispute in 1739, 91, 

In 1765, 121 
Town officers in 1919, 215 
Town records, 89 
Town Treasurers, 215 



Universalists, 123, 161-164 



Valuations in 1787. 137, 138 
Villages, 204-209 



Wakeman, Rev. W. W., 167 
War of 1812, 139 
Weatherby, Nathaniel, 72 
West Parish, 83-87, 99 
Whiting, Hiram, 147, 167 
Whitney, Henry A., 199 
Wight, Rev. Elnathan, 101-107 
Wight family, 71 
Wilcox, Jerald O., 159 
Williams, Roger, 35-37 
Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, 109 
Witchcraft delusion, 10 
Woonsocket, 207-209 
World War, 186 
Wrentham, 29 










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